EDITH CAVELL: Nurse, Spy, Heroine

by Adele DeLeeuw ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 7, 1968

She was not a spy--she had not even been charged with spying"" insists one of Edith Cavell's defenders in this, the first entry in the Spies of the World series. The inept, inapt designation will draw readers, however, and so may the look of the book: closed, its dimensions resemble the Putnam series for younger children; open, the type is somewhat smaller but still highly legible. In appearance, then, a fourth-fifth grade book; in vocabulary and sentence structure, about fifth; in treatment and tone, sufficiently mature for a young teen-which gives it a special potential. Besides, the book is good: the aloof nurse who introduced English methods and training to the Continent, then stayed on at her hospital in Brussels during World War I and considered it a duty to harbor Allied escapees comes across at least as well as she does in the most responsible previous biography, Elizabeth Grey's Friend Within the Gates. Also eschewing histrionics, this is the more exciting.

Pub Date: May 7, 1968

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Putnam

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1968

Categories: NONFICTION