Rating: 
(279 reviews)
Author: Laurie Halse Anderson
Publisher: Aladdin
Amazon.com
On the heels of her acclaimed contemporary teen novel Speak, Laurie Halse Anderson surprises her fans with a riveting and well-researched historical fiction. Fever 1793 is based on an actual epidemic of yellow fever in Philadelphia that wiped out 5,000 people–or 10 percent of the city’s population–in three months. At the close of the 18th century, Philadelphia was the bustling capital of the United States, with Washington and Jefferson in residence. During the hot mosquito-infested summer of 1793, the dreaded yellow fever spread like wildfire, killing people overnight. Like specters from the Middle Ages, gravediggers drew carts through the streets crying “Bring out your dead!” The rich fled to the country, abandoning the city to looters, forsaken corpses, and frightened survivors.
In the foreground of this story is 16-year-old Mattie Cook, whose mother and grandfather own a popular coffee house on High Street. Mattie’s comfortable and interesting life is shattered by the epidemic, as her mother is felled and the girl and her grandfather must flee for their lives. Later, after much hardship and terror, they return to the deserted town to find their former cook, a freed slave, working with the African Free Society, an actual group who undertook to visit and assist the sick and saved many lives. As first frost arrives and the epidemic ends, Mattie’s sufferings have changed her from a willful child to a strong, capable young woman able to manage her family’s business on her own. (Ages 12 and older) –Patty Campbell 
Book Description
During the summer of 1793, Mattie Cook lives above the family coffee shop with her widowed mother and grandfather. Mattie spends her days avoiding chores and making plans to turn the family business into the finest Philadelphia has ever seen. But then the fever breaks out.
Disease sweeps the streets, destroying everything in its path and turning Mattie’s world upside down. At her feverish mother’s insistence, Mattie flees the city with her grandfather. But she soon discovers that the sickness is everywhere, and Mattie must learn quickly how to survive in a city turned frantic with disease.
5 Comments
Mattie has never been much of an independent girl. She hasn’t had the opportunity to be, with her mother always on top of her, telling her what to do. Her mother is a widow who runs a coffeehouse in Philadelphia. The year is 1793 and there is always much work to be done. Mattie’s mother is used to ordering Mattie, Mattie’s grandfather and the two girls who work there, Eliza and Polly, around. Then in August of 1793 the yellow fever comes to Philadelphia. At first just a few people are sick here and there. Then they begin to die in hundreds and thousands. When several people they know have been struck by the fever, Mattie’s mother begins to worry. When she herself is struck, she sends Mattie and her grandfather out to the country where they will be safe from the sickness.
But other towns know about the fever and they have guards posted at the entryways of their towns. They are suspicious of Mattie’s grandfather’s cough, and don’t allow him in. Mattie and her grandfather are abandoned by the people in whose wagon they had been traveling, and Mattie herself begins feeling sick. The next thing she knows, she is recovering in a public hospital with other fever victims. She has been one of the lucky ones to survive. When she makes her way back to Philadelphia, she finds that her mother has gone to the country to meet up with her. She has no way of getting there and no way to inform her mother she is alive. Now may be her chance to take care of things at home and prove that she is an adult.
I liked the historical aspect of this book, and especially the appendix, which told about the history behind the things mentioned in the book. The story was a bit predictable, though, and I didn’t like the romance between Mattie and Nathaniel. There was no real explanation for it and it didn’t really develop.
Fever 1793 is a book about a teenage girl growing up in Pennsylvania in, of course, 1793. Mattie Cook was living a perfectly normal life when one day a very bad fever starts to spread, and Mattie’s world turns upside down.
I think that Fever 1793 is a very well written book. The way Laurie H. Andersen describes things is wonderful. It is the kind of book that once you pick it up, you can just not put it down. The beginning doesn’t grab you so well but once you read a few chapters, you get more of a feel for the characters. I enjoyed this book because it seemed to pull me into the pages like I was right there when it all happened. I would recommend this book to people who like to be sucked up in their reading. However, I would not recommend this book to people younger than 7, because some of it is sad, and some is a little scary. As the New York Times Book Review says “the plot rages like the epidemic itself.”
I live near Philadelphia. 1.5 million people live in philly these days, and if the epidemic that Fever 1793 describes were to happen today, in 90 days, 150,000 people would die and 700,000 people would flee. Look at those numbers and ponder – if you lived there, what would you do?
The story is told, as was Speak, from the point of view of a very believable teenaged girl. From her fights with her mother to her flirts with her beau to the very way she survives the plague and finds herself in the process, Mattie is a compelling heroine. In fact, I have great respect for Ms. Anderson; she writes the point of view of a teenaged girl so well that I almost feel 15 again.
Though some would call the story predictable, I found that the (very well researched) historical perspective and plethora of factual information was almost overwhelming. If the plot had been too intricate, the book would have been lost. As it is, through the comfort of a steady plot, a fantastic story is told.
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A well written book. This story is about Matilda, a teenage girl who survives the fever of 1793. It is surprising how many people the fever killed. I think this is a very good historical fiction book.
Do you like reading historical fiction books? If yes, then this is a great book to read. Fever 1793 takes place in Philadelphia where Mattie Cook, her mother, and her grandfather all live. They run a coffeehouse and that is where they get all of their money from. Yellow fever starts to go through the town and Mattie’s mother gets sick. Mattie and her grandfather are sent away and they are picked up by people who are going the same route as them. But after about a mile being in the wagon they are stopped before going into another town to check for yellow fever. Mattie’s grandfather is thought to have yellow fever when it is just a cough. Mattie and her grandfather find a place to rest near a river. Mattie goes off to find some food and wakes up in a hospital bed with yellow fever. Mattie nearly dies but survives. Mattie and her grandfather return home to the coffeehouse to find that her mother isn’t there anymore. This book is great if you like suspense books because the book keeps you wanting to read more. This book is also great because it is like a mystery book because you don’t know what is going to happen next. Fever 1793 is about yellow fever attacking a town so if you like reading historical fiction, this is a great read. This book could be for a guy or a girl even though the main character is a girl. In conclusion, Fever 1793 is a great book to read because, it is historical fiction, a suspense book, and it is like a mystery book also. It keeps you wanting to read more and that is what a good book is.
Kaitlyn Good
Block 3