Book Review

Summary: During the summer of 1793, Mattie Cook lives above the family coffee shop with her widowed mother and grandfather. Mattie spends her days avoiding chores and making plans to turn the family business into the finest Philadelphia has ever seen. But then the fever breaks out.

Disease sweeps the streets, destroying everything in its path and turning Mattie's world upside down. At her feverish mother's insistence, Mattie flees the city with her grandfather. But she soon discovers that the sickness is everywhere, and Mattie must learn quickly how to survive in a city turned frantic with disease.

I recently picked up this young adult book called Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson. I had never heard of this book but I have enjoyed several book by this author lately and decided to give this one a try. Although this was a fiction book, the facts about the yellow fever in 1793 were real. It was very interesting to see how far medicine and cures have come. And the chaos an epidemic can cause the then "modern" city of Philadelphia, PA. I would recommend this to children and adults alike.