Monday, February 10, 2020

19. Fever Year

Fever Year: The Killer Flu of 1918. Don Brown. 2019. 96 pages. [Source: Review] [Graphic Novel; Historical; World War I]

First sentence: America was at war.

Premise/plot: Fever Year is a nonfiction narrative in graphic novel format. It tells the story of the killer flu (aka Spanish flu) which devastated the world is 1918/1919. There are no central characters, it just follows the spread of the flu and its effect on communities. It is well researched. The speech bubbles in red are direct quotes.

My thoughts: I have read adult nonfiction on this subject. I find it fascinating and horrifying in equal doses. It’s scary to read about such a deadly and contagious flu.

The adult read was a bit more compelling. I’ll have to search my blog archives and try to find the title so I can possibly reread. But this one was great for the middle grade audience.

There were definitely not any nonfiction graphic novels when I was young. You were lucky if a book had eight illustrations and slightly larger print.

I would not have read this one as a kid—I scared super easy. But as an adult I enjoyed it.


© 2020 Becky Laney of Young Readers

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