A little girl is only 4 years old when she receives a nursing kit for her birthday. She loves bandaging up her teddies and dolls, not knowing she’ll be bandaging real injuries in foreign countries over 20 years later. This birthday gift and her desire to be brave like her returned serviceman dad, has pointed her towards a nursing career as an adult.

To her father’s horror, war is declared again, and this now an adult and devoted Royal North Shore Hospital nurse, signs up for the Royal Australian Air Force Nursing Service.

With her parachute checked and packed and nursing supplies ready, she boards a plane bound for enemy skies. Camouflage is everything, both in the sky and on the ground as they treat and collect injured Australian soldiers. She puts her patients first on the dangerous trip home again and is rewarded by a grateful soldier.

Inspired by a real life Flying Angel – Sister Marie Eileen Craig, this picture book (written in present tense) took me through a remarkable young woman’s life from the age of 4 to 25 – with nursing a constant passion.

She was one of a group of handpicked nurses who aided in the rescue of injured soldiers from Papua New Guinea and other Pacific island hotspots and then bringing them home. The soldiers themselves gave these women their title – “Flying Angels.”

Illustrated in soft sepia tones, there is still no mistaking the danger these women faced, as bombs exploded around them in the sky and nursing was done under camouflage netting. Then they face danger again, returning to the skies and trying to avoid enemy fire.

Author – Vicki Bennett

Illustrator – Tull Suwannakit

Picture Book

Age – 6+

(Image from:  https://bendigohealth.org.au/news/page/586)

(2021, Scholastic, War, WWII, Nursing, Nurses, Heroes, New Britain, Papua New Guinea, Sister Marie Ellen Craig, Courage, Action, Bravery, Historical, Bio)