Module 10: Fever 1793 Laurie Halse Anderson

Picture taken from:

http://www.amazon.com/Fever-1793-Laurie-Halse-Anderson/dp/0689848919/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1319931230&sr=8-1

Summary:

Mattie is a typical teenage girl, she likes her sleep and is full of dreams of becoming something different than her mother.  Mattie, her mother, and grandfather live together and own a coffeehouse. The business does well to support the family and Mattie’s mother hopes it will be someday be a good dowery for her daughter to marry a respectable young man. Mattie has no interest in marrying, she has dreams of someday owning the coffeehouse herself and making a few changes to modernize the place. 

All dreams and petty disagreements are put aside when Yellow Fever begins to sweep the city. Mattie must learn what its like to fend for herself. After her mother comes down with the fever  she is separated from her and left to fend for her grandfather and herself in a city petrified with fear and illness. Eventually, Mattie is reunited with her mother, but the amount of growing she must do in order to survive is amazing. 

Citation:

Anderson, L.H. (2000). Fever 1793. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Impression:

 Fever 1793 is well written and contained all the attributes that make it a good historical fiction. The main character is round and dynamic, the historical events are accurate, and the plot is engaging. With historical fictions, like Fever 1793, I always look for proof that the author did his or her homework. This novel has a listing of primary and secondary documents that the author used while writing the book making it even more heartbreaking and exciting a novel to read. Over all, this is a fantastic book containing adventure, heartbreak, love, family, and romance. 

Reviews:

The opening scene of Anderson's ambitious novel about the yellow fever epidemic that ravaged Philadelphia in the late 18th century shows a hint of the gallows humor and insight of her previous novel, Speak. Sixteen-year-old Matilda "Mattie" Cook awakens in the sweltering summer heat on August 16th, 1793, to her mother's command to rouse and with a mosquito buzzing in her ear. She shoos her cat from her mother's favorite quilt and thinks to herself, "I had just saved her precious quilt from disaster, but would she appreciate it? Of course not." Mattie's wit again shines through several chapters later during a visit to her wealthy neighbors' house, the Ogilvies. Having refused to let their serving girl, Eliza, coif her for the occasion, Mattie regrets it as soon as she lays eyes on the Ogilvie sisters, who wear matching bombazine gowns, curly hair piled high on their heads ("I should have let Eliza curl my hair. Dash it all"). But thereafter, Mattie's character development, as well as those of her grandfather and widowed mother, takes a back seat to the historical details of Philadelphia and environs. Extremely well researched, Anderson's novel paints a vivid picture of the seedy waterfront, the devastation the disease wreaks on a once thriving city, and the bitterness of neighbor toward neighbor as those suspected of infection are physically cast aside. However, these larger scale views take precedence over the kind of intimate scenes that Anderson crafted so masterfully in Speak. Scenes of historical significance, such as George Washington returning to Philadelphia, then the nation's capital, to signify the end of the epidemic are delivered with more impact than scenes of great personal significance to Mattie.

Citation:

Earley, L. (2000, September, 4).  [Fever 1793] [book review]. Publishers Weekly, Retrieved from http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-689-83858-3

Uses:

• Have a History Alive Night and discuss ways the youth can find out more about their heritage. Introduce family tree databases and books, like Fever 1973, that are interesting retellings of American history.
• Bring in a member of the community who works with history, like at a local museum, to talk about the history of the town or about possible epidemics that happened in the past 150 years and explain what students can do if such an illness were to happen again.