Fever, 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson

Fourteen year old Matilda Cook lives in Philadelphia in 1793 and helps her widowed mother run a coffeehouse along with her grandfather who served under Washington during the Revolution. The whole city is turned upside down when an unseasonably warm summer leads to an overabundance of mosquitoes and an epidemic of yellow fever kills thousands. Mattie's mother is striken with fever and sends her daughter away to the country where people believe children will be safer in the open air. Over the course of the story, Mattie herself contracts the "pestilence" as they refer to the illness and is lucky enough to survive. She loses track of her mother not knowing whether she is alive or dead and has to bury her grandfather. Mattie's struggle then becomes staying alive as she must learn to care for herself and find enough food. Mattie's journey takes her from health to sickness and from childhood to adulthood. Readers sixth grade and up will appreciate Anderson's careful research of a terrifying period in American history.

Genre: Historical Fiction

Anderson, L.H. (2000). Fever, 1793. New York: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers.