CodeOrange
by Caroline B.
Cooney
Smallpox is
a disease that isn't around anymore. Doctors and scientists eliminated it from
the face of the earth. But before that, it was like chickenpox, every kid got
it at some point. But unlike chickenpox, it could kill you. It killed a lot of
kids. And if it didn't kill you, you would have deep scars all over for the
rest of your life.
Mitty
doesn't know any of this when he picks smallpox for his research project. Mitty
is the kind of guy who likes to wait for the last minute to do his homework.
The kind of guy who will pick up a book at the library the night before a paper
is due, read it that night, and write the report on the way in to school in the
morning.
But before
the assignment is due, his family goes to their vacation house for the weekend.
Mitty can't go to the library. So he goes through the boxes of antique books in
the vacation house garage. He finds a 100 year old medical book. Well, maybe he
won't get a great grade, but he won't flunk. When he looks up smallpox, out
falls an old, yellowed envelope. Inside the envelope is some brown crumbly
stuff. Mitty sneezes as it tumbles into his hand.
He's found
100 year old smallpox scabs, the most infectious part of a person with smallpox.
Mitty has become a biological time bomb. It's time to get scared.
(Booktalk
by Sarah Hunt, King County Library System)
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