M., Son

Newbery Honor–winning author Choldenko (Al Capone Does My Shirts) extends her historical San Francisco–set fiction with this light mystery. Thirteen-year-old Lizzie is a smart, scientifically-minded girl, which in 1900 makes her out of place in her silly finishing school, and she delights in following in her doctor father’s footsteps. Applying the scientific method to rumors of the bubonic plague in Chinatown, she finds herself facing the power of the media and racist political schemes as she attempts to rescue her Chinese housekeeper from quarantine. Choldenko’s appealing and convincing main characters and detail-rich setting keep the story afloat, though there is little actual mystery in the end