"Fever 1793," by Laurie Halse Anderson Novel Study for Grades 4-8 - Print Ready

Fever 1793, by Laurie Halse Anderson is such a powerful story explaining the Philadelphia scare of 1793. It's late summer 1793, and the streets of Philadelphia are abuzz with mosquitoes and rumors of fever. Down near the docks, many have taken ill, and the fatalities are mounting. Now they include Polly, the serving girl at the Cook Coffeehouse. But fourteen-year-old Mattie Cook doesn't get a moment to mourn the passing of her childhood playmate. New customers have overrun her family's coffee shop, located far from the mosquito-infested river, and Mattie's concerns of fever are all but overshadowed by dreams of growing her family's small business into a thriving enterprise. But when the fever begins to strike closer to home, Mattie's struggle to build a new life must give way to a new fight—the fight to stay alive.

This literature guide/book study includes the following:

There are four sections on each of the comprehension pages:

• Fill in the blank: These are directly from the text, and almost always word for word from the story.
• Thinking Deeply: There are two questions per section included. These questions ask students to write and think a bit more deeply about the text.
• Vivid Vocabulary: Four vocabulary words are included, which students need to look up in a dictionary. Students then write the definition of the words on the study guide page.
• Illustrations: After some sections, students are asked to draw a picture of something that happened within those chapters.

There are also multiple graphic organizers to deepen understanding.

*Author's Purpose

*Story Structure

*Sequence Events

*Wrapping it all up

The sections are chunked together so your students could read for 15-20 minutes and then answer the questions. It tells you and your students where to begin reading for the day, and where to end reading. Of course, if you need to read these sections over the course of a couple days, that would work, too.

Just to you are aware, there is NOT an answer key included, as many of the questions in this packet are subjective and open-ended.

I hope you enjoy this story as much as I did, and I hope this packet helps your kiddos deepen their understanding of the text.

Thanks for looking!!

-Dan M.