Review: A DEATH-STRUCK YEAR by Makiia Lucier

3.94 STARS — 245 GoodReaders

**Starred Review** SchoolLibraryJournal

A DEATH-STRUCK YEAR reminds me of some of the American Girl books. It's well-researched and works hard to convey the essence of an era. It's also written to appeal to a female audience.

THE BACKSTORY

The backstory for this book is the deadly Spanish Flu and World War I. 

Cleo Berry, our heroine, lives with her much older brother, Jack, and his wife, Lucy. Cleo's parents were killed in a car accident when she was younger, and she's fortunate in that her brother is well off and she is able to go to a private girl's school and even dream of going to college. Her biggest problem is that hasn't a clue what she wants to do in the future.

THE STORY

As the story begins Jack needs to do some business traveling and because his and Lucy's wedding anniversary is coming up, they've decided to extend his travels and celebrate the anniversary in San Francisco. Cleo is to be moved temporarily to her school, which boards many of it's pupils, until they return.

Unfortunately, while Jack and Lucy are gone, the deadly Spanish Influenza, which had been on the East Coast only, jumps to Oregon. As the death's begin to mount the school is closed. Children like Cleo are expected to stay in residence, but Cleo has other plans and she returns home. 

Shortly afterwards, she decides she can not stay barricaded in the house, and she signs up to become an assistant with the Red Cross. This is obviously the start of her adventures.

~

The writing in A DEATH-STRUCK YEAR is good. It's crisp and straight forward. The plotting is logical.

The book has earned kudos and starred reviews and that's not really surprising as it's obviously well researched, and it has enough excitement, and a satisfying enough ending for a middle-grade read.

In my own mind, I see this book fitting into the average category. Basically because to my adult sensibilities the story is predictable and lackluster. It's perfectly obvious, for example, from the first introduction who the love interest will be. This would not, however, keep me from recommending it to my own middle-grader. It's a good example of edu-tainment.

Special Tweens Note:  there is some swearing, a tiny bit of drinking --which is used to introduced the notion of prohibition-- and of course, there are sick people, dying people, and dead people of all ages. In addition there is a one-time mention of a birth control pamphlet.

Pam~


A DEATH-STRUCK YEAR
by Makiia Lucier

Reading Information:
Page Count:  288
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