Fever Year (Don Brown)

 

Ever since Covid started, I've been interested in learning about other pandemics. This one is a graphic novel and it tells the story of The Spanish Flu quite well. It's interesting to see all the similarities between what happened back then and what has happened during Covid.

Goodreads says:

From the Sibert Honor–winning creator behind  The Unwanted  and  Drowned City  comes one of the darkest episodes in American the Spanish Influenza epidemic of 1918. This nonfiction graphic novel explores the causes, effects, and lessons learned from a major epidemic in our past, and is the perfect tool for engaging readers of all ages, especially teens and tweens learning from home.
 
New Year’s Day, 1918. America has declared war on Germany and is gathering troops to fight. But there’s something coming that is deadlier than any war.
 
When people begin to fall ill, most Americans don’t suspect influenza. The flu is known to be dangerous to the very old, young, or frail. But the Spanish flu is exceptionally violent. Soon, thousands of people succumb. Then tens of thousands . . . hundreds of thousands and more. Graves can’t be dug quickly enough.
 
What made the influenza of 1918 so exceptionally deadly—and what can modern science help us understand about this tragic episode in history? With a journalist’s discerning eye for facts and an artist’s instinct for true emotion, Sibert Honor recipient Don Brown sets out to answer these questions and more in Fever Year .

Like the Willow Tree (Lois Lowry)

 

Living in the middle of a pandemic, I have found myself more and more curious about the events around previous pandemics. This book was recommended to me by a librarian in my children's lit book club. While it is about a fictional girl who is orphaned and sent to live with the Shakers during the pandemic of 1918, it is more about the Shakes than the pandemic. It was a good read though! 

The shakers group/religion was started by a woman. They lived celibate lives and kept to themselves. They farmed and sold their goods to others. They prayed to a Heavenly Father Mother - someone who was both female and male. The Law of Consecration could describe their communal way of living. It was quite fascinating to learn about them! Some of the reviews I read were quite put off by the groups' religious teachings. I did find that part quite fascinating.

Apparently, Lois Lowry bought a house quite near the actual setting of this story and became so interested in the life and experience of Shakers that she wrote this book. 

I've read a couple of these Dear America and Dear Canada books. I have to say, the diary/journal format hasn't grabbed me. 

Goodreads says:

Two-time Newbery Award-winning author Lois Lowry brings a brand-new, beautiful diary to the Dear America series!

Suddenly orphaned by the Spanish flu epidemic in the fall of 1918, eleven-year-old Lydia Pierce and her fourteen-year-old brother, Daniel, of Portland, Maine, are taken by their uncle to be raised in the Shaker community at Sabbathday Lake. Thrust into the Shakers' unfamiliar way of life, Lydia must grapple with a new world that is nothing like the one she used to know.

Now separated from her beloved brother, for men and women do not mix in this community, Lydia must adjust to many changes. But in time, and with her courageous spirit, she learns to find the joy in life again.