Fever 1793
by Laurie Halse Anderson
by Laurie Halse Anderson
Pages: 305
My rating: A-
Source: Purchased Nook book
The streets of Philadelphia in the summer of 1793 were teeming with many things: children, animals, soldiers, and a plague. Mattie is only 14, but she’s seen her share of hard times. She can either give up and take the easy way out, or stand up and fight for what she loves the most: her family and their coffee shop. After she and her grandfather get separated from her mother, the odds seem hopelessly stacked against them. There is almost no food to be found, the coffee shop has to close, and now the disease is threatening to take away the ones she loves the most. Somehow, she has to overcome it all.
Laurie Halse Anderson has done it again. She took what could have been a boring historical novel filled with sorrow and death, and she turned it into an intriguing mystery of sorts. Mattie is such an endearing character that readers will find themselves cheering her on. I wasn’t able to put this book down. It was such a refreshing story about triumph, love, and family, and it is set in a time period of history that is different than most historical YA novels.