Epidemics and Pandemics
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Epidemics and Pandemics: Real Tales of Deadly Diseases

Feel a tickle in your throat? Do you still have that headache? Could you be falling victim to a deadly virus? From history's earliest days, bacteria and viruses have stalked humans. Stowing on wagons, ships, and airplanes, these diseases traversed the globe, infecting people in city streets and isolated hamlets. Epidemics and Pandemics: Real Tales of Deadly Diseases tells the tale of five of history's most critical contagions and the havoc these diseases wreaked across the globe, including the bubonic plague, yellow fever, smallpox, Spanish influenza, and AIDS. This nonfiction book for early middle schoolers whets their appetites for history by combining real-life horror stories with primary sources and rich language.
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Reviews

VOYA Magazine
“Fascinating, enjoyable books well worth having in any library collection serving young readers.”

SWON Library
“This middle grade nonfiction explores several infamous epidemics and pandemics. The details provide the reader with enough information to understand the cause and the extent of each outbreak without going into scientific overload. Overall, interesting, fast paced nonfiction.”

School Library Connection
“This series will engage middle grade readers with intriguing retellings of diseases, disasters, and explosions. Each book contains an introduction followed by five chapters, with well-told stories that unearth specifics even the most knowledgeable readers likely haven’t heard of—even if the basic facts, dates, or figures of the past are generally well known. Topics include Black Sunday, the blowout on the Deepwater Horizon, and the Spanish flu. The narratives are packed full of descriptive, graphic, and sometimes even gruesome details, but the chapters are broken into manageable sections that make the information easier to digest. A map and timeline begin each chapter, but only a smattering of photographs accompany the text. Additional Resources. Glossary. Recommended.”

Booklist
"Disease can shape the course of history, and Epidemics and Pandemics reveals the effects that sicknesses such as the bubonic plague, influenza, and AIDS have had on a global scale . . . Even for non-history buffs, interest is bound to be piqued."

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Detailed Book Description

Feel a tickle in your throat? Do you still have that headache? Could you be falling victim to a deadly virus?

From history's earliest days, bacteria and viruses have stalked humans. Stowing on wagons, ships, and airplanes, these diseases traversed the globe, infecting people in city streets and isolated hamlets. Epidemics and Pandemics: Real Tales of Deadly Diseases tells the tale of five of history's most critical contagions and the havoc these diseases wreaked across the globe, including the bubonic plague, yellow fever, smallpox, Spanish influenza, and AIDS. This nonfiction book for early middle schoolers whets their appetites for history by combining real-life horror stories with primary sources and rich language.

  • The setting, dialogue, plot, and character in these narrative nonfiction tales are drawn from historical documents and presented in a compelling way to appeal to both avid and reluctant readers.
  • This topic helps readers understand the clash between Europeans and native people during colonial expansion and explore the themes of discrimination based on race and sexual orientation.
  • Readers will learn of key turning points in world history and be exposed to some basic elements of epidemiology.
Available In:
Hardcover, $19.95
9781619306233
Paperback, $9.95
9781619306257
Includes: Table of Contents | Maps | Glossary
Specs: 5.75 x 9 size | black and white interior | 128 pages

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction
Bloodthirsty Bacteria and Venomous Viruses

Chapter One
The Great Mortality: Bubonic Plague

Chapter Two
Secret Weapon: Smallpox in the New World

Chapter Three
Yellow Fever Threatens Independence

Chapter Four
Deadly Traveler: The Spanish Flu

Chapter Five
The Deadly Mystery: AIDS

Glossary
Resources