Tiny Pineapple

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Jane Arden, Registered Nurse

by Kathleen Harris (1956)
Jane Arden, Registered Nurse

Jane Arden, a graduate nurse, is facing the prospect of her first job. She has been offered a position at City-County Hospital in Elmwood, Ohio, where she has just completed training — a prospect which has the added advantage that she can remain at home with her mother and father, her twin Jay, and her younger brother, Skippy.

But like most of her classmates at City-County Hospital, Jane is anxious to try her own wings. And when her sister Roberta, working as a fashion model in a smart shop in Palm Beach, invites her down for a visit — and adds that there is a shortage of nurses in Florida — Jane decides to look over the situation for herself.

Besides Roberta, there is another attraction for Jane in Florida. David Hyatt, “the boy next door,” is stationed at an air base not far from Palm Beach — and Jane, realizing that David’s recent letters have been rather cool, thinks it is time for a heart-to-heart talk with the jet pilot whose choice of a job is as distasteful to Jane as Jane’s nursing is to David.

To her surprise, Jane is met at the airport not by her sister, the glamorous Roberta, but by a strange young man who has been sent to meet Roberta’s “kid” sister. Nicky Powers, when he gets over his astonishment at Jane’s grown-upness, is decidedly pleased with his assignment. But when Jane learns that Roberta is living in a guest cottage on the grounds of Nicky’s uncle’s large estate, she feels that this beautiful artificial world into which she has stepped is no place for her.

When a nursing job is unexpectedly thrust upon Jane, she meets the challenge with her usual resourcefulness. But even Jane is stumped by the change in David Hyatt. This tall, good-looking captain in the Air Corps is so unlike the old David that Jane feels he is more of a stranger than Nicky Powers. And when David gets her promise to marry him immediately, and follows it up with a demand that she give up her nursing career, Jane is face with her first real test.

Jane Arden, Head Nurse

by Kathleen Harris (1959)
Jane Arden, Head Nurse

Jane was faced with the crisis of her life — either give up a new and growing love, or shatter her cherished career?

When Jane Arden took over as Head Nurse at the Friedmont Hospital, she knew that the job had many pitfalls. But it was an exciting challenge in a field she loved.

Then she met Jeff Wallace, the young, outspoken Chairman of a strife-torn Hospital Board. Jane needed his support and his friendship. She saw him more and more.

At first when people started to talk she didn’t care. But she had enemies who wanted to get rid of her any way they could. Suddenly Jane realized that her whole career was threatened — as well as her growing love for Jeff.

Was it already too late?

Island Nurse

by Marcia Ford (1959)
Island Nurse

It was only after some hesitation that pretty Carol Lee took the assignment with old William Elliott. the case that had brought her to Bayport, that of the aged Elizabeth Stafford, who had broken her hip, had been a short-term one, and now Carol wondered about the advisability of secluding herself — possibly for a long time — with Mrs. Stafford’s friends, the Elliott family, on their exclusive island home, Myrtle Island, across the bay from the mainland.

But Carol was charmed by the Elliotts’ great white-columned mansion, and when she met the prospective patient, the harsh but human cardiac case Mr. Elliott, she knew that in caring for him she would gain valuable experience both in medical practice and in bedside manner. And the other members of the Elliott clan, as well as many of the other local island residents, most of them with the money to go with it, were most cordial, welcoming her with enthusiasm into their social lives.

And within days after her decision, Carol is glad she has taken the case, for she finds herself excitingly involved in the romantic life of the young people of the islands. Breathlessly, she discovers that Ronnie Beaufort has swept her off her feet. And between dates, when she is again down to earth, David Elliott is there, taking up more of her time. Two attractive and eligible young men, as completely different as possible: Ronnie, a reckless, extravagant, fun-loving yachtsman; and David, the thoughtful and scholarly owner of the bookstore in Bayport. Of the two, David provides the more intellectually satisfying company, but Carol cannot help being fascinated by the exciting, zany Ronnie. Before many days she decides she is in love with him.

But a chance discovery by Carol and David, of a new still mysteriously set up on an abandoned estate on one of the local islands, greatly disturbs the tranquility of life in the Carolina lowlands. And not long after, a violent hurricane sweeps across the South, a storm that separates the frantic Carol from her patient, marooning her on another island, one in grave peril from the raging, rising sea.

The climactic events that rapidly ensue bring Carol startling information about the Beauforts and the Elliotts…and, finally, about the true object of her love.

Ice Show Nurse

by Jane Converse (1970)
Ice Show Nurse

Could she find the warmth of love away from the hospital in a glittering world of ice?

IN THE SPOTLIGHT
Tiny, a queen on ice, spun…and the audience gasped with delight.

BEHIND THE SCENES
Nurse Wells stood watching with the doctor…the man she’d joined the ice show to be near.

But could the quiet, competent nurse hope to win her man when Tina whirled, glittering, out of the spotlight and into his arms?

Hospital Zone

by Mary Stolz (1956)
Hospital Zone

Once again Mary Stolz has written a perceptive and meaningful novel for young people which will assume its rightful place among her many other successful novels.

Set in a training hospital, this is the story of Honey Kirkwood, a nineteen-year-old student nurse. Her world alternates between the shell-like seclusion of Private Eight, where her patients are, and the limitless possibilities beyond its corridors.

Honey, like so many people her age, is looking for the answers to two questions. They are, Who am I? and Who is is everybody else? A gradual approach to some understanding of herself and others comes to Honey through her association with the many different people with whom she comes into contact — both in and out of the hospital zone.