In her third novel chronicling the education of Mary Carstens, a brilliant young orphan in late 1930s/early 1940s western New York state, who is determined to become a doctor, Mildred Foulke Meese sets her story during Mary's final year of medical school, just as she set the first installment of the series, The Wagon to the Star, during Mary's final year of high school, and the second, Star Light, Star Bright, during her final year in college. After an initial scare involving Monty, the caring matron of the Ellis Home for Unprotected Children where she grew up (and which provides the opening scenes for each of Meese's books), Mary plunges once again into the life of Clifton Medical school, and of the Gamma Psi sorority house where she is president. Immediately engulfed by work, Mary must contend with Rush Week, the impending nuptials of Harty and Bramston, two of her oldest friends from her Bolarville High days, and the disappointing fact that she has not been given the surgery round at the teaching hospital, as she'd expected.

Rising to the occasion as always, Mary overcomes innumerable challenges, from recalcitrant patients with no wish to surrender their medical histories, to a stern supervisor, Dr. Jabrow, who seems to have no use for "hen" (women) medics. But just as life in Clifton proceeds apace, so too does it in the wider world, where America is about to be drawn into World War II. When the attack on Pearl Harbor occurs halfway through the school-year (and through the novel), it changes everything: for Mary and her friends and colleagues, for Harty and Bramston (now a Marine), and for Dr. Peter Kirkland, who suddenly and inexplicably withdraws from Mary, causing terrible pain and loneliness. Immersing herself in work, she endures as best she can: "Mary very well knew that pride was her besetting sin and chief defect of character but now she was fiercely glad for it. It would carry her through. It would make the long months without Peter possible; it would help her bear this year toward which she had once turned with such anticipation... She had her work. She would stand on her own feet."

With the same strong characterization and deeply felt emotional undercurrents - undercurrents that never quite overwhelm the more lighthearted aspects of the story - to be found in the first two Mary Carstens novels, I found Her Star In Sight to be the most powerful yet, of Meese's books, and had no sooner set it down, than I was picking up the fourth and final volume, Mary Carstens, M.D.. Published in 1942, it was written at the time that America was finally getting involved in WWII, and it offers a fascinating contemporaneous view of that moment in history. The loss experienced by Mary's circle, after the events of Pearl Harbor, particularly the evident death of Bramston on Wake Island, are portrayed with immense poignancy, and although Bramston turns out to be alive in the end, even that surprise is not free from sadness.

Just as engrossing as the "intrusion" of WWII into Mary's narrative, was the discussion of gender issues in the story, as Mary and her friends struggle with the reality of being women in a heavily male-dominated field. It's interesting, because although Meese clearly acknowledges that this is a challenge, and that discrimination exists, she also depicts an environment in which the "hen medics" are encouraged by their male instructors, and in which, if they try very hard, they can succeed. Of course, they have to be just a bit better than their male counterparts to do it, and Meese is honest enough to admit it. Still, the discussion itself is fascinating, and not something I often encounter in older children's and young adult literature! All in all, a most engaging and satisfactory chapter in what is turning out to be a fantastic series! I suspect that, had I first discovered these books as a young girl, they would be personal favorites.

Note: although Meese's books seem very progressive to me, for their time, there was an incident in this story, in which a medical student misdiagnoses a mixed-race woman, thinking her darker skin tone is indicative of an illness (Addison's Disease) rather than a result of heredity. It's obviously meant to be humorous - to highlight the dumb mistakes medical students make - but will probably make many contemporary readers uncomfortable. ( )