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• Position: Review

Fever BY LAURIE HALSE ANDERSON

Fever 1793 (Simon & Schuster) is a major departure for the author of the tense contemporary novel Speak. It's about the 18th-century yellow-fever epidemic in Philadelphia that killed 5,000 people--10 percent of the population--in just three months. The harrowing historical novel is told episodically by date from August to November, with a brief epilogue, mostly through the eyes of Matilda, whose family owns and runs the Cook Coffeehouse. There is a very detailed appendix of historical material explaining some of what actually happened.

Hope Was Here BY JOAN BAUR

Proving once again that you can tell a serious tale with humor and affection, Hope Was Here (Putnam) is the story of Hope, a 16-year-old waitress, traveling with her Aunt Addie, a great diner cook. Leaving a diner in Brooklyn, New York, where the owner cheated Addle, the pair end up in rural Wisconsin. Next...