Chasing Secrets

Gennifer Choldenko's Al Capone series is one of my favorites.  Now Choldenko has a new novel for middle grade readers coming out this fall that I read in one sitting a few weeks ago and can't wait to share with my students.

Lizzie Kennedy is growing up in San Francisco in 1900.  She doesn't want to go to the finishing school where she is enrolled, and would rather spend her time going with her father, a doctor, on his house calls.  

When rumors about the plague coming to San Francisco start circulating, Lizzie's father and uncle are certain they are nothing more than rumors.  And then Jing, one of the family's life long servants, disappears.

In Jing's room one day, Lizzie discovers a boy near her age - Jing's son.  Noah asks for Lizzie to help him find his father and to never tell anyone that he is hiding in the servant's quarters.

This search gets Lizzie in many scrapes as she attempts to bring Jing home, spending much of her time in or near Chinatown.

What Lizzie sees piques her suspicion about the plague being more than just a rumor. And then the plague hits much closer to home.

This book is full of suspense, and a great deal of information about medicine and how it was regarded before people truly understood the concept of immunizations.  

Chasing Secrets is a book I hope to hand to many students and teachers this fall. This is another amazing book from Choldenko.