Well-known writer Susan Goldman Rubin teams up with debut illustrator Richie Pope for Mary Seacole: Bound for the Battlefield, a picture book biography of a nurse during the Crimean War. This is not Florence Nightingale, the famous nurse, although Florence does make an appearance in the book with a rather unexpected and uncomplimentary side of her identity.
Mary grew up in Jamaica, learning nature’s medications as she helped her mother who was a “doctress.” She doctored her dolls before advancing to the dogs and cats in her neighborhood. When they ran away, she practiced on herself. Her mother, who was Creole, belonged to a class called free colored, and Mary considered herself to be Creole although her father was a Scottish officer.
Mary gained the love of medicine from her mother and the desire to travel from her father. Although she did not have formal medical training, she learned herbal medicines from her mother and added to her knowledge by questioning British doctors who ate at their boardinghouse. She worked alongside her mother through the yellow fever epidemic that swept Jamaica and eventually worked alone after her mother’s death through another epidemic of cholera. Eventually, she would take her place nursing soldiers in the Crimean War. Laced throughout her life from the time she was a teenager, she encountered racism and the frequent epithet “yaller woman.” Others, especially those who needed her healing talents, saw her skill and compassion and called her by familiar names reserved for close relatives.
Susan Goldman Rubin follows expectations from her previous historical writings in detailed research that includes Mary Seacole’s own writings which she turns into an interesting account of Mary’s life with both struggles and accomplishments. Richie Pope’s illustrations in vivid colors and intricate detail seem perfectly suited to Mary Seacole herself. This book should be on a school library shelf or the bookshelf of any child who loves nonfiction. (Current research indicates that would include most children.) Adults who have not lost their childhood curiosity will enjoy it as well.