Ugh, Papers

I feel like this is the response whenever I assign any kind of writing to my students, "ugh, we have to write a paper...whhhhyyyy??"   Mitty Blake, the main character in Caroline B. Cooney's Code Orange, is no different. When told he has to write a term paper on an infectious disease he does what any self-respecting student would do-procrastinate.

Mitty finally chooses smallpox and once he realizes his sources have to include actual books (shudder) and not just Internet sites he raids his mothers book collection.  (It's not really hers, part of Mitty's mom's job is to decorate houses for wealthy clients and they want libraries that look nice so she always has a stash of books with nice bindings).  Side note-if you only have a library because you want your house to look nice and your only criteria for what books go into said library is that they have nice binding please pass your library on to me or someone who will actually use it for books they will actually read.

Luckily, one of these old books is on infectious diseases. It also contains an envelope with strange little scabs that Mitty immediately touches.  They dissolve because they are so old and Mitty inhales all of that dust.  Turns out these were scabs from a smallpox patient.  Can the virus survive that long outside a host?  Will Mitty single-handedly be responsible for the return of a disease once eradicated by vaccines?

Of course, I'm not going to tell you.  You just have to read the book yourself.  And I very much recommend that you do.  Code Orange was the perfect mix of excitement, suspense, and background info on infectious diseases.  Seriously, it is worth a read.


Writing a paper...that's kids stuff.