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Book Review of Fever 1793

Fever 1793
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Mattie Cook is a 14-year old girl living with her widowed mother and grandfather in their coffeehouse in Philadelphia in 1793. Like most teens in her day, she is kept busy helping run the family business even as she tries to avoid chores and constantly contrives to run into Nathaniel, a young painter whom her mother frowns upon because he has no prospects. Then yellow fever descends upon the city, and her world is turned upside down. The rich flee the city as the dead start to pile up in the streets, and friends turn on each other even as strangers act heroically to help those in need, and Mattie struggles to survive in a world suddenly turned dangerous. It is a chilling but fascinating picture of a dark time in America's history told from a teen's point of view for young adults.