This was an interesting and informative book, but could have been much better. It is a short book, only about 150 pages. But the narrative is even shorter as there are many illustrations, which are actually the best part of the book. On almost every other page is an illustration from the time period, thus reducing the prose.

The book is the story of the Yellow Fever plague in Philadelphia in 1793. Unfortunately, the medical community neither knew what caused the disease, nor how to properly cure it. Only later did they learn the disease was carried by mosquitoes.

Overall, it is not a bad book, but I wish the story had gone deeper into the daily life of the citizens of Philadelphia and how they coped with the plague, as well as some in-depth stories of those who suffered and recovered from the disease.

As I said, the illustrations are beautiful and are the best part of the book, thus I was able to give it 3 stars. As it is a very short read, I can recommend it for those interested in this subject. There is a nice index and list of sources at the end for those wishing to read further on the subject. ( )

Robert F. Sibert Medal 2004 for the most distinguished informational book published in the United States. ( )

This was an interesting enough book about a Yellow Fever epidemic in our Nation's Capitol in 1793. It's a side of our Nations early period you don't really get in the common history books. I didn't rate it higher, probably because I had just finished "The Ghost Map", about the London cholera epidemic around the same time in history. I preferred that book in the way it described the conditions of city life at the time, how the fears and torment of the people was described, and how medical "knowledge" at the time was so limited. ( )

Scary! ( )

Very informative and interesting. I will use it as an informational text in my classroom. ( )