4.
Author(s): Laurie Halse Anderson
Title: Fever 1793
Publication: Paperback
Pages: 251
Genre: YA Historical Fiction
Acquisition: Teaching text, 8th grade language arts
Date Completed: January 7, 2011
Rating: 5 stars out of 5

When I read a novel or text for work I am usually pretty strict with myself in terms of remaining on the same schedule as my students; I like the ideas to be as fresh for me as they are for them, and since I teach five very different classes (with about 90 students) each semester, this can become doubly important. However, with Fever 1793 I simply couldn't stop.

I started out well, and read only the first eight chapters I had assigned to my 8th-grader. However, when I picked up the novel today to prepare next week's work I simply couldn't help myself - I just had to finish.

Fever 1793 is an historical novel narrated by Matilda Cook, a fourteen-year-old girl, as she witnesses and experiences first-hand the disaster that is the 1793 outbreak of yellow fever in Philadelphia. The plot itself is gripping, and speaks greatly to the reader's emotions while maintaining an eye for historical detail and relevance. Each chapter begins with an excerpt from an 18th-century text that will help young readers put Mattie' life in context, and likewise increases their understanding of what makes her life so extraordinary. Fever 1793 treats everything from social classes, slavery, respectability, gender roles, occupation, education, and politics, to plain human decency and the strength of the individual spirit, and is sure to catch the imagination of a wide range of readers.