A Death-Struck Year by Makiia Lucier - OPTIONAL

Lucier, Makiia A Death-Struck Year, 276 p. Houghton Mifflin, 2014.  $18.  Language: G; Violence: G; Mature Content: PG-13. 

Cleo’s borther and his wife are away on a much needed holiday, so Cleo is stuck boarding at her all girls’ school instead of just attending as a day student.  When the Spanish influenza arrives in Portland, Oregon along with a train full of ill soldiers, Cleo leaves school and offered her help as a volunteer to go door-to-door to seek out victims too weak to ask for help.  The handsome doctor who is also aiding the victims also catches her eye, but with so much disease and death around, heartbreak is sure to follow. 

Lucier adds another dimension to the year of Spanish influenza that killed so many.  I would have recommended this book whole-heartedly, but there is a part that mentions birth control methods.  I realize that maturation is taught in elementary school and middle school, but I felt this warranted a heads up.

MS - OPTIONAL.  Cindy - Library Teacher