This is a great historical fiction for middle school through adults. I don't remember being taught anything about the yellow fever epidemic that consumed Philadelphia in 1793 so I was really interested after reading the description.

In the beginning of the book, Mattie Cook is a typical kid with big hopes and dreams. She often butted heads with her hard-working mother who owned and operated a coffee shop. The shop was normally packed all day, but as the fever spread, more and more people fled to the country leaving Philadelphia a ghost town.

Mattie came down with the fever after being stranded in the middle of nowhere by a family that she had paid to take her and her grandfather to a friends farm outside the city. She was found laying by the side of the road by French nurses who took her and her grandfather to their hospital.

Mattie recovered and returned to Philadelphia to look for her mother. Instead, she saw people dying in the streets and carts full of the dead being taken to mass graves. Her mother was not at home and the shop had been ransacked. Food was in such short supply everyone ate very little.

You can feel the pain, sorrow, and determination on every page. Mattie's character evolves and grows up quickly. She kept going through it all never giving up or loosing faith that her mother was alive and would return to town.

The first frost of fall came with a huge celebration, marking the end of the yellow fever pandemic. Philadelphia's once hauntingly silent streets were packed with Philadelphians eager to return home. At the time, Philadelphia was the capital of the growing United States. When president Washington returned to the city, the last of the residents came home.

I enjoyed this quick historical read and highly recommend it to middle grades and up. It gives the reader a glimpse into the struggle of staying alive in a time when there were no treatments.

As always, happy reading! 📚