Belinda is a sweet, sensitive teenager who can't stand to see anything suffer. Her brother, Luke is a doctor who thinks Belinda has real potential as a nurse. He asks her to accompany him on a few calls, she agrees. And then she goes with him to a house where someone has a "broken arm". The arm is not just broken, it is shattered, and in danger of becoming infected with gangrene - which would surely end the boy's life. Luke takes the arm to save the life - and is hated for it. When the boy learns the part Belinda had in it, he hates her to. But what circumstances transform both his life and theirs?

A lovely book! I love it!

I have mostly shied away from Christian novels, especially Janette Oke's, but decided to pick this one up and give it a try. Instead of getting a preachy, dry as sandpaper story, I was surprised to get a nice, wholesome story of an incredibly warm and likable family full of strong characters and a good plotline.

I found the rivalry between the girls over the schoolteacher's son both humorous and as frustrating as Marty did, and liked the way Belinda's family subtley reached out to the Simpsons who were too proud to accept charity from any of the neighbors. My favorite characters in this book had to be Marty, Belinda, and her relationship with her older brother Luke as she learned nursing by doing. More than anything, I got Oke's unmistakable message in this book: When you want to win someone over to your beliefs, you don't ram them down their throats, but by patiently waiting as you set an example that will eventually draw them in.