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Laurie Halse Anderson
Simon & Schuster
Softcover
5 14 x 7 3/4 inches
251
0-689-84891-9
2002
9 - 13
2
$5.99
$4.11
Recognitions:
Junior Library Guild Selection
IRA Teachers' Choice
ABA Pick of the Lists
Why A Girl between ten and twelve years old will like this book
Fever 1793 is an historical fiction that
teaches much about what Philadelphia was like right after the
Revolutionary War. George Washington, Dr. Benjamin Rush, the
Peale Family, the Free African Society are all actual people mentioned
in the story.
The gripping account of Yellow Fever makes this a
book for older children. Though many of the characters in the
book survive, many do not.
The account of Mattie's life in the summer of 1793 is a gripping tale of determination and courage.
Synopsis
In 1793 a deadly Yellow Fever epidemic descended upon Philadelphia, our nation's first capital. Before the first frost came and killed the disease, 10% of the population had died. This is an historical fiction account told by Mattie Cook, a 14-year old girl and of how she survived. Read about the medical practice of the time-- the common blood-letting techniques--and the real people who inhabited the city.
Description
Mattie Cook is 14 and chafing under her mother's firm discipline. She has dreams about what the Philadelphia coffee house could become if only she were able to put her dreams into action. Then, one morning the servant girl Polly does not appear for work. Mattie's mother becomes ill. Yellow Fever has come to the city. Mattie and her grandfather, a captain in the Revolutionary War, are sent to the country to wait out the fever. But, when her grandfather appears to be stricken with the fever, he and Mattie are tossed from the cart. Mattie must then cope, not only with her beloved sick grandfather, but also with her own needs of food, water, shelter, and of finding a way back to the coffee house. Mattie challenges the disease and herself and eventually becomes a responsible young woman--able indeed to run her own coffeehouse.
Extras
The 7-page appendix includes historical data about the epidemic, the "battle of the doctors", Yellow Fever cures that people believed in, information about the Peale family, the free African Society, coffeehouses of the time, and several paragraphs about "the miraculous moving capital."
