Great Middle Grade Reads discussion

The order in which we ranked the seven books was:

1= Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH 24.5%
1= Counting by 7s 24.5%
3 Fever 1793 20.4%
4= The Teacher's Funeral : A Comedy in Three Parts 8.2%
4= Diary of a Wimpy Kid 8.2%
4= The Wednesday Wars 8.2%
7 Umbrella Summer 6.1%

You can read them over July and August in any order you choose - but please put your comments in the correct thread!

This thread is for FEVER 1793

I hope you enjoy it. I haven't located a copy yet.

I read this a few years ago, here are my thoughts on it from back then. I actually got it as an audiobook, and so I really got a sense of Mattie's voice.:

Another fantastic book by the epically awesome Laurie Halse Anderson.
'Fever 1793' is set in Philadelphia in the summer of 1793. Yellow fever breaks out, and what starts as just another summer fever becomes a deadly epidemic that wipes out whole families, and causes people to abandon the city. Mattie lives with her widowed mother, grandfather, and their African-American servant, Eliza, above the family coffee shop. When her mother becomes ill, Mattie is sent to live at a friend's house in the countryside, along with her grandfather. On the journey, however, they are abandoned at the side of the road when Mattie's grandfather falls sick. From this moment on, Mattie has to find a way to survive - first on the road and in a fever hospital, and then back in Philadelphia. When she returns to Philadelphia, survival is even harder than it was out on the road - her mother and Eliza are gone, their coffee shop has been broken into and robbed, food is scarce, and sickness is everywhere.

I was originally a little wary about this book because of it's historical context, I worried that Mattie might be some cliched historical character. I should not have worried - as with all of Anderson's protagonists, Mattie is fantastic. What I was most impressed by was how, although Anderson made Mattie true to her time (worrying about showing her elbows in front of the boy she likes, bathing once a month etc) she makes Mattie a *teenager* and in some ways, teenagers, even before they were called that, haven't changed. Mattie argues with her mother, wants to sleep in, both likes and kicks the butt of a boy she likes, and isn't afraid to share her opinions and stand up for herself.
The historical context of the yellow fever epidemic of 1793 - which I knew nothing about - was fascinating, as was the portrayal of post-war of independence America.

I liked the supporting characters as well, especially Mattie's grandfather.

I, too, read it a few years ago. I felt it was beautifully written, with historical information woven into it so well. Matty's character is developed as the terrible troubles of the yellow fever are met head on by her. Even the slight romance between the aspiring painter, Nathaniel (who works under the eventually famous painter Charles Wilson Peale) and Matty - the delightful Civil War veteran grandfather - Eliza, the free slave - Joseph, her brother, and his two little boys - Nell, the little girl orphaned by the epidemic - - all came across as real.
I would hope readers would take advantage of the appendix information, to understand the history behind this story. I was certainly unaware of the epidemic and its terrible consequences.