Fever 1793

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Tina Blacksmith, March 5, 2012 (view all comments by Tina Blacksmith)
A great read about yellow fever. It follows a young girl, who at times, feels lost. This book is full of sadness, but at the end, there is a ray of hope. The facts about yellow fever are really interesting.

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Effie, August 17, 2009 (view all comments by Effie)
This short narrative makes for a realistic read of a historical time period, when the yellow fever was running rampant in Philadelphia in 1793. The narrator is a young independent girl--probably moreso than she would have actually been allowed to be at the time, but it makes for a nice feminist punch for the person reading it today.

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megan s, June 14, 2009 (view all comments by megan s)
Fever 1793 features Matilda Cook a 14 year old girl in Philadelphia in (you guessed it) 1793. Mattie's widowed mother owns and runs the Cook Coffeehouse where important men of the city come to talk politics and enjoy coffee and the fare prepared by Eliza, a free black and friend of the family. At the beginning, Mattie is a typical young girl - more eager to have fun and disobey her mother than to pull her weight at the coffeehouse. As summer is very slowly drawing to a close, disaster strikes as a deadly yellow fever epidemic sweeps the city. The city devolves into chaos and Mattie's life is torn asunder when her mother takes ill. The epidemic forces Mattie to grow up fast as she is left almost alone in a city that seems to be slowly dying. As the first frost comes, effectively ending the fever, and Mattie has still not heard from her mother, Mattie is forced to make some difficult decisions about her future and the future of the coffeehouse.

Mattie is an engaging narrator. It's easy to relate to her desire to leave behind the backbreaking work of the coffeehouse and enjoy her life. Halse Anderson does a fine job of portraying how Mattie changes during the epidemic and gains a new inner strength that she is able to draw upon to pick up her life once the epidemic has ended. Philadelphia in 1793 is realistically portrayed both in health and in sickness. Halse Anderson has obviously gone to great pains to maintain the historical accuracy of her story and succeeds admirably. Included at the end is a very interesting appendix that elaborates on the factual elements of the story. Fever 1793 is great historical novel about a girl transcending her very dire circumstances and finding out who she is in the process.

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Product Details

ISBN:

9780689848919

Author:

Anderson, Laurie Halse

Publisher:

Aladdin Paperbacks

Location:

New York

Subject:

Action & Adventure

Subject:

Historical - United States - Colonial

Subject:

Children's 9-12 - Fiction - Historical

Subject:

Health - Diseases

Subject:

Epidemics

Subject:

Health & Medicine - Diseases

Subject:

Pennsylvania

Subject:

Survival

Subject:

Yellow fever

Subject:

Philadelphia

Subject:

Action & Adventure - General

Subject:

Philadelphia (pa.)

Subject:

Historical - United States - Colonial & Revolutionary

Subject:

Children s-Adventure Stories

Copyright:

2002

Edition Description:

B102

Series Volume:

2002-1

Publication Date:

March 2002

Binding:

TRADE PAPER

Grade Level:

Children/juvenile

Language:

English

Pages:

272

Dimensions:

7.62 x 5.12 in 6.51 oz

Age Level:

10-14