Customer Reviews

Fever 1793

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Reading Fever 1793 you get so pulled into the story that it feels like you're there. Mattie Cook is the main character, but this book also circulates around her mother, grandfather, and an African American ex-slave, Eliza, who works at Mattie's mother's coffeehouse. Soon into the story, Mother becomes ill with the dreaded yellow fever, and sends Mattie and Grandfather to the countryside to avoid contamination. While away, Mattie becomes infected with the disease, but is able to outlive it. Upon returning home, Grandfather dies, and Mattie and Eliza are left to take care of Cook's Coffeehouse. As the story continues, you under stand the hardships faced, the friendships kept, and the scary, lonely feelings faced by Mattie Cook.

Before I read this book, I had absolutely no idea what it would be about. I never would have guessed i would learn so much from it. I also was surprised by how real it felt, like i was there with Mattie experiencing it all. I find this book to be influential because it helped me understand how real diseases are, and how seriously they need to be taken. Life isn't forever, and sometimes people are gone sooner than you would like them to be. As i read about the death of Mattie's Grandfather, it made me think about a time when i lost someone important to me. After i had read this selection completely, it helped me to understand the past, mainly the epidemic known as the yellow fever.

Fever 1793 has given me a better awareness of sicknesses, and the reality of them. The amount of shows on television and movies being made where characters die or become ill make people think that this wont happen to them, because television and movies aren't real. Although yes, they arent real, sicknesses can be. Sicknesses can wipe out nearly an entire city, like in Fever 1793.

This book was very interesting, and i really enjoyed reading about the historicallity of it. Being a historical fiction, it had an air of realness, while still containing a story to be told. This book is comprised of 29 chapters, all five to ten pages in length. The lengths of the paragraphs are quite diverse. anywhere from one to 15 sentences. It is written in a simplistic way, and has a fair amount of dialogue between characters.

Not only do I love YA fiction (which kind of grew on me as I taught middle and high school) but also historical fiction. Both of these genres blend together beautifully in Laurie Halse Anderson's "Fever 1793". It is a gripping account, written from the point of view of a fourteen-year-old girl, Mattie Cook during the course of a year, 1793, in Philadelphia. Mattie lives with her mother and paternal grandfather, a Revolutionary War veteran, above a coffeehouse the family operates in Philadelphia. Mattie chafes under her mother's strict and proper upbringing, and the daily grind of doing chores wears out Mattie's patience.

Things change when the yellow fever epidemic sweeps Philadelphia and Mattie finds herself adrift without proper guidance when the people closest to her are unable to support her both emotionally and physically. The story tracks Mattie's growth as an individual, one who needs to make important, life-altering decisions, and grow quickly from childhood to adulthood within a span of a year. The story moves at a quick pace, and makes for riveting reading. Mattie is a strong-willed, defiant, and courageous young woman, and young adults will easily relate to her on this level. Her journey towards self-reliance and independence is credibly portrayed against the historical backdrop of the fever epidemic that swept Philadelphia in 1793 and took many lives. This is a well-written and engaging YA historical novel that will appeal to both teenagers and adults.

This book is amazing. It was just like new, had no rips or tears, nor did it have markings on it. I read this book when I was in fourth grade and have been wanting my boyfriend to read it and I found it on amazon. Thank u amazon!! Very happy with my purchase. However, it did take quite some time to be delivered but I guess that's alright.