Chasing Secrets by Gennifer Choldenko

Middle School

San Francisco, 1900

The Gilded Age

The Victorian Era

This story stars Lizzie Kennedy, a smart girl stuck at Miss Barstow’s snobby school for girls. Lizzie’s secret passion is science, an unsuitable subject for finishing-school girls. Lizzie lives to go on house calls with her physician father. On those visits to his patients, she discovers a hidden dark side of the city – a side that’s full of secrets, rats and rumors of the plague.

The newspaper, her powerful uncle, and her beloved papa all deny that the plague has reached San Francisco. So why is the heart of the city under quarantine? Why are angry mobs trying to burn Chinatown to the ground? Why is Noah, the Chinese cook’s son, suddenly making Lizzie question everything she has known to be true? Ignoring the rules of race and class, Lizzie and Noah must put the pieces together in a heart-stopping race to save the people they love.

I don’t read many historical fiction books but this one caught my eye and it turned out to be pretty good. The thing is I didn’t realize it was a historical fiction book when I started reading it. There are so many different historical topics in this book that it’s hard to pick which ones to talk about. So I decided to talk about two main topics: Women’s Rights and the Plague.

For a long time, women weren’t allowed to do much of anything. Women didn’t have the right to vote and were often refused entry to bars, restaurants, and other businesses. In schools, girls were only taught subjects deemed necessary for cultured young women destined to run a household of servants – French, elocution, dancing, music, geography, etiquette, and entertaining. No science and no math after third grade. But thanks to the Women’s Rights Movement, that took place during 1848 to 1920, girls like Lizzie were starting to get their chance to be themselves. I think it’s good for girls in this time period to learn about how girls were treated back in the day. I can’t imagine going to school and learn how to be a ‘proper lady’.

There actually was an outbreak of the bubonic plague in 1900. The timeline of what happens in the book and what actually happened is off though. In real time, it started around January 2 and ended November 1908. I can’t go into too much detail about it or I’ll ruin the mystery.

You can read all about the Plague and other historical topics in the back of the book.

For anyone who enjoys historical fiction books, I recommend with story.

Calvin by Martine Leavitt

High School and for fans of Calvin & Hobbes

As a child, Calvin felt a connection with the comic book character from Bill Watterson’s Calvin & Hobbes.

He was born on the day the last strip was published; his grandpa left a stuffed tiger named Hobbes in his crib; and he even had a best friend named Susie. Then Calvin’s mom washed Hobbes to death, Susie grew up beautiful and stopped talking to him, and Calvin pretty much forgot about the strip – until now.

Now he is 17-years-old and had been diagnosed with schizophrenia. Hobbes is back, as a delusion, and Calvin can’t control him. Calvin decides that Watterson is the key to everything – if he would just make one more comic strip, but without Hobbes, Calvin would be cured. Calvin and Susie (is she real?) and Hobbes (he can’t be real, can he?) set out on a dangerous trek across frozen Lake Erie to track down Watterson.

When I found this book at the library, I practically jumped with joy. I thought Bill Watterson had written a book about a teenaged Calvin & Hobbes. Then I was immediately disappointed when I read that this was a story about someone who thought they were Calvin. But I had to keep reminding myself that this Calvin wasn’t the Calvin.

I owe a lot to the Calvin & Hobbes comics. They were what got me into drawing in the first place. When I was in fifth grade, the boy who sat next to me was almost always reading one of the big Calvin & Hobbes comic books. I would lean over to try to read the comics but I was on his left side and I could never see the ending of the comics. After awhile I found the comics at the library and was hooked.

Schizophrenia (to me) seems pretty scary. For those who have delusions, you never know if the person you’re talking to is real or if it’s all in your head. I first found out about schizophrenia from a TV show called ‘Perception’. It’s about Dr. Daniel Pierce, a talented but eccentric neuropsychiatrist, who is enlisted by the FBI to assist in solving complex cases in Chicago. Daniel has paranoid schizophrenia and his hallucinations sometimes help him to pick out subtle clues in solving crimes. This was my favorite part of the show because his hallucinations were so funny. One time he hallucinated the devil and the devil made a joke about how many lawyers were in hell. He said, “You can’t throw a rock without hitting one. Actually that’s a game we play down there.” That was one of my favorite hallucinations. I’ve always liked shows about people with hallucinations or can see someone that no one else can see. I find it strangely amusing watching someone talk to thin air.

I don’t know if this book or the show ‘Perception’ are being truthful about the facts on schizophrenia. I read two other books about characters with schizophrenia that probably are more factual but I don’t know when or if I’ll review those books.

This is one of my favorite comics. I even did my own version with my own characters.