Pandemic

Gr 9 Up—It's been a few months since Lil changed from a model student into the nervous and withdrawn person she is today. Despite her anxiety and compulsions, Lil is surviving as best she can. Soon her anxious worries become real when a few flu cases turn into an epidemic—and then that flu epidemic becomes a global pandemic. Lil's parents are stranded on separate business trips, and she is left alone, with her fears, to face the illness rampaging around her. Then there are the looters and the orphaned baby down the street. And Jay, who might be the only good thing left. But the teacher who sexually assaulted her keeps trying to get in touch, and nowhere seems safe. This is an engrossing apocalyptic story, told through Lil's eyes and newsfeeds as her neighborhood, then the East Coast, and finally the entire U.S. buckles to its knees as the pandemic spreads. The sexual assault plotline wasn't really necessary (Lil could have easily been anxiety-ridden without it), but it does add to the fears and drama. Themes of friendship and coming together in a crisis carry the novel.—Brandy Danner, Perkins School for the Blind, Watertown, MA