Fever 1793
By: Laurie Halse Anderson
Character Analysis
Matilda Cook (Maddy) , from the book Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson is caring, smart and very strong despite everything she goes through. I believe this because even though she has a house and food every day , she grew up without a father , working in her mothers coffeehouse everyday and her worst problem, trying to survive the fever that left very few survivors.She keeps hope and tries her best to move forward for a long period of time all by herself. she lost her grandfather , her best friend , she almost lost her mother , and through all that she found a way to survive and help others survive too.
Development
The two most important themes in the story are : family and learning how to always keep moving forward because dreams can come true. For example in the story Matilda starts out with a pretty small family , just her mother , grandfather and her but in the end she ends up with a big family . Matilda learns that family is not only those who are related by blood , but those who you love and care for and they love and care for you too. She fought for/with those who she loved . And the other important theme is that she kept going no matter what. She was sad many times but she kept finding ways to survive, she found a way to stay strong and stay alive during everything and she also helped other people like Eliza ( a free black woman who was the cook in the coffeehouse), Nell ( an orphan she finds at an abandoned house ), and even her own grandfather ( before he passed away ) because she knew that if she stayed strong , her dream of living a happy life would come true.
Evaluation
I recommend this book because it is a great historical fiction novel of Yellow Fever in Philadelphia 1793. Don't you just love to read novels? some can be funny others can be filled with drama and some can even make you have nightmares , but Fever is a great story about how a young girl could go through so much and still have a happy ending. This is a book that you can't put down, it will have you on the edge of your seat wanting to find out what happens next. I say you go to your library, take out the book, and start reading to find out how Matilda Cook survived and helped others survive the great yellow fever .