Customer Reviews

Code Orange (Readers Circle)

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Mitty is a high school goof-off. He is a poor student who is more plugged into his music than his schoolwork. He is only taking Advanced Biology because of he wants to be in the same class as the fair Olivia. He works just hard enough to get by which is why he has not started his research paper on infectious diseases. While looking through some very old medical books he discovers an envelope marked VM. Inside are two nasty, ancient scabs, which he examines and handles.
His research leads him to the meaning of VM...variola major or smallpox.

He cheerfully sets off to research smallpox for his report but as his knowledge of the disease grows so does the dawning horror that he has handled and inhaled the dust from the scabs. Is the virus still viable after all this time? Has Mitty contracted the disease and is he spreading it around his beloved New York City? Are his symptoms real or is he imagining things?

I started this novel last night and had to stop about half way for sleep though thinking about it kept me awake. There are times when Cooney's discoursing on the topic begins to overwhelm the plot but my eyes kept racing ahead to find out what was going to happen next.

The threat of smallpox as a bioterrorism weapon is a part of the current dialogue so I found the evolution of the story very compelling. The book is a fast read and has an "eeeuww" factor, which should make it a success with teens.

I booktalked it to an 8th grader today and he grabbed the book out of my hands saying, "I've got to read this book."

This book takes place in New York City in present time. Mitty is a 15-year-old boy who thinks that life would be so much easier without school. The only reason that he makes himself go is Olivia. Mitty takes advanced biology, and he's not really sure why. His class is assigned to research a infectious disease using books as their textural references. If he does not make a good grade on this test, he'll go back down to regular biology. Mitty would be fine with that, but it would mean not being in Olivia's class. So he decides to do the project. He chooses Variola Major, commonly called smallpox. While researching, Mitty comes upon a envelope stuck in between the pages of a disease book. When he opens it he finds several, what he believes were once smallpox scabs from a 1920 epidemic. As Mitty is writing his paper, he describes what smallpox does to your body. I recommend not reading these parts on a stop-and-go bus ride on the way to school, it only makes it worse. At the end of the chapters, the author tries to scare you by implying that the scabs had gone into his nose, and were affecting Mitty. He himself can not decide if he actually has this disease which he and the rest of the world thought no longer existed, or if he is simply imagining it.

So, Mitty decides to email different medical committees and groups that he thinks he may have smallpox. These groups act in different ways, one person wants to buy the scabs, others think theirs no way the virus could last that long, and another threatens to call the FBI for joking about a terrorist threat. Mitty tries to make himself believe that he doesn't have small pox, but he can't help thinking he may cause a bioterrorist attack. It ends up that he thinks about killing himself, but actual terrorists kidnap him first. You still don't know if he actually does have small pox or not. I personally didn't think he did NOT, since the author had been hinting Mitty did.

Finally, Mitty pretends he has smallpox, slightly believing it himself, and the kidnappers believe him. He lures the kidnappers down stairs, and locks them in. He also breaks a pipe which releases carbon monoxide into the air. He manages to escape himself, just barely, and calls 9-1-1.

I found the book very enjoyable and fun to read. It was very suspenseful and very good. The only critique I have to make is the fact that reading about what would happen if someone with smallpox was a little too detailed and sickening.

Im not much of a reader, but i read this book for my ap biology class. The book made me actually want to keep going after each chapter and the twists and turns throughout the story kept me on my toes. I recommend this to anyone who wants a quick read about a kid dealing with the possibility of starting another small pox epidemic.

This book I pick up off the shelve of my local library. I was looken for something exciting, and I thought that this looked like it could fit that catagory! I found that this book drew me in and I could not put it down. I felt a part of this book, I was dreaming about Smallpox, thinking about it durning the day. In this book you feel like you were Mitty's best friend, you felt as if you were apart of every thought and adventure Mitty took. This was an amzing book,and I will deffently read it again!!

Mitty blake is doing an advanced biology paper. He find some small pox scabs and he inhales them. Will the still have the diese in them or will they be to old.You shoul read this book.

Mitty Blake is a carefree hero. He is an average student, likes his parents and sister, and breezes through school with average grades. Everyone likes Mitty. When the terrorists kidnap him to get the smallpox virus scabs to destroy New York City, he uses what he learned from his parents to survive. Kids need to read books about good families and good kids. One of my favorite sections was when his worried sister came home to be with their parents while Mitty missing. A lot of books have single parent households, dysfunctional siblings and emotional problems. Code Orange had a close knit family, siblings who like each other, and an average guy who solved a major problem using his head. Code Orange is my favorite Caroline Cooney book.

In Caroline B. Cooney's "Code Orange", Life as people know it rests on the shoulders of Mitchell Johnson Blake, an ordinary teen living in New York City. With just a week left until his advanced biology term paper is due, Mitchell has yet to decide the topic. In his vacation home, he finds a book from the eighteenth century with an envelope containing smallpox scabs in it. Without thinking twice, he takes them out. The scab dust penetrates his nose and is on his fingers. Mitty learns more and more about smallpox, and is starting to get nervous. Mitty is usually scared of the unknown, but now, what he knows scares him even more. Does he have smallpox, one of the most feared infectious diseases? If he doesn't, then why is he getting some of the symptoms? What will become of Mitchell? Or the more important question, what will become of the human race?

all in all, code orange is not just another brick in the wall. It's twisting plot-line keeps you turning the pages until you've finished the book. Just when you feel you have figured out what you feel will happen, the story takes another hairpin turn down a totally different direction. In this book, Mitty not only battles his fears of becoming infamous for reintroducing smallpox to our world, but he faces the everyday hardships of being in highschool.
So is Mitty the re-creator of smallpox, or a harmless teen scared of the disease that terrorized our world before it was eradicated? You'll have to read to find out!

~written by her son.

In the opinion of myself and all of my friends, we can all say that this book is incredible.Heart stopping, this book sparked a conflict inside of me. I desperately was obsessed with this book and wanted to keep reading. But at the same time, I was terrified to turn the page. Suspense, romance, adventure, and the struggle to survive all packed into one small novel! I would definitely recommend this book to viewers who liked the Hunger Games and Lord of the Flies.
(This book has a pretty slow start so don't be fooled by the some-what boring beginning. The ending will one thousand times be worth it. Just don't skip or look at the end without finishing the book!)

Have you ever gotten a virus? Did you get over it? What if you got a virus that you couldn't get over? One that had the potential to infect the entire city. That's the situation that Mitty Blake finds himself in this exiting thriller. Mitty is a high school student who has a paper due for his advanced biology class, but doesn't know what to write about. He finds the answer at his parents weekend house when he discovers an old book on infectious diseases. However, he gets more than he bargains for when he finds an envelope tucked in the book. The envelope had the words "Scabs-VM epidemic, 1902, Boston" on it. Looking in the index of the book, Mitty finds that VM stands for Variola Major, or smallpox. He takes the book and the envelope home with him and does more research on the virus while writing his paper and discovers that it has the potential to kill everyone in New York City. Things get even more complicated when Mitty writes to the CDC and a group of terrorists track down his email in order to spread the virus throughout the city! This exiting book caught my attention and kept me turning pages, and it will for you too. Buy it!

Mitty is a typical 16 year old boy. He loves music and his iPod. His only reason to go to any class at all is because he wants to be in Advanced Science with his crush. All of this changes when he decides that he actually has to do a project for Advanced Science to stay in. He starts his reaserch in a couple of old science books that his mom was using to decorate a library. Stuck into one of the pages was an envelope titled V.M. Inside it was a couple of scabs, maybe 100 years old at the youngest. Mitty handles them, breathes in their dust, and maybe worst of all, studies them. He decides to do this V.M. thing for his reaserch project. He learns that V.M. means smallpox. He also frightingly finds out that he could be infections and could start an epidemic. Read this exciting thriller that will leave you at the end of your seat through thee entire book. I loved it and so will you!