However, I was pleasantly surprised that, where there was plenty of room to introduce objectionable material, none was injected. There are a few references to smoking pipes and drinking ale. After all, it is about a fever epidemic in which many people died.Īs to language, the “d” word is found once, and the term “God” is used as an exclamation, also once.

Of course, those who prefer only “shoot-em up, bang, bang” books will find any tale that is told gently to be boring. The two biggest complaints which I saw, besides those of technical literary critics with their personal opinions about pacing and characterization, were that the story is boring and the plot is way too sad. Where can she and her grandfather go? Should they try to reach their friends or return to Philadelphia? What will happen to her mother? And will she ever see Nathaniel again? Laurie Halse Anderson, author of the contemporary teen novel Speak, bases Fever 1793 on an actual epidemic of yellow fever in Philadelphia that wiped out 5,000 people in three months. Then Mattie herself comes down with the fever. However, when Grandfather seems to fall sick, the two are abandoned by their wagon driver who makes off with all their possessions. Mattie’s mother becomes ill, sending the girl and her grandfather to friends in the country. People begin fleeing the city right and left. An epidemic of yellow fever hits the city. Mattie’s beau is Nathaniel Benson, an apprentice to painter Remington Peale. Their cook is a free African-American Eliza, and they have a serving girl named Polly. with her widowed mother, grandfather Captain William Farnsworth Cook of the Pennsylvania Regiment during the American Revolution, and orange cat Silas. It is the summer of 1793 in Philadelphia, PA, and fourteen year old Matilda (Mattie) Cook lives above the family coffeehouse on High St. Fever 1793 (published in 2000 by Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Simon and Schuster Children’s Publishing Division, a trademark of Simon and Schuster Inc., 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York City, NY 10020). No other compensation has been received for the reviews posted on Home School Book Review.Īnderson, Laurie Halse. Any books donated to Home School Book Review for review purposes are in turn donated to a library. Recommended reading level: Ages 10-12 and upĭisclosure: Many publishers and/or authors provide free copies of their books in exchange for an honest review without requiring a positive opinion.

(1=nothing objectionable 2=common euphemisms and/or childish slang terms 3=some cursing and/or profanity 4=a lot of cursing and/or profanity 5=obscenity and/or vulgarity) Publisher: Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers, reprinted in 2002

Fever 1793 author