It is once again time for the start of book club season! This year's theme is historical fiction. We are starting with Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson. The Yellow Fever epidemic that overtook Philadelphia in 1793 vividly comes to life. Her father died many years ago, and her mother continues to run their coffee shop with the help of her father-in-law, a Revolutionary War hero, a free black woman, and Mattie, her fourteen-year-old daughter and our protagonist. Colonial life demands hard work, and Mattie is a reluctant participant. The news of the fever epidemic starts small and with a lot of disinformation about cures- sound familiar? Those who are dying and those who flee grow and grow. The city becomes desperate for food and medicine. The elite and wealthy abandon those who can't afford to leave. This is a Young Adult book; don't take that to mean happy-slappy. People die, and some details are gruesome; bleeding someone to purge them of bad humors was a common practice. The story is well told and not without hope.
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