INTERMEDIATE FICTION
Hopkinson, Deborah

The Great Trouble: A Mystery of London, the Blue Death, and a Boy Called Eel

(2) 4-6 Thirteen-year-old Eel is a "mudlark," gleaning bits of rope, rags, and coal from the River Thames. He's also loading bodies into coffins as cholera has hit London. A parallel story line involves a secret Eel is keeping. Hopkinson constructs a historical novel of Dickensian fashion, with twists and turns, an accumulation of odd coincidences, and an earnest protagonist readers will root for. Reading list, timeline, websites.

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