Chasing Secrets, Gennifer Choldenko
Chasing Secrets, Gennifer Choldenko
1 Rating(s)
List: $20.00 | Sale: $14.00
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Chasing Secrets

Author: Gennifer Choldenko

Narrator: Karissa Vacker, Gennifer Choldenko

Unabridged: 7 hr 2 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 08/04/2015


Synopsis

Newbery Honor–winning author Gennifer Choldenko deftly combines humor, tragedy, fascinating historical detail, and a medical mystery in this exuberant new novel.
   San Francisco, 1900. The Gilded Age. A fantastic time to be alive for lots of people . . . but not thirteen-year-old Lizzie Kennedy, stuck at Miss Barstow’s snobby school for girls. Lizzie’s secret passion is science, an unsuitable subject for finishing-school girls. Lizzie lives to go on house calls with her physician father. On those visits to his patients, she discovers a hidden dark side of the city—a side that’s full of secrets, rats, and rumors of the plague.
   The newspapers, her powerful uncle, and her beloved papa all deny that the plague has reached San Francisco. So why is the heart of the city under quarantine? Why are angry mobs trying to burn Chinatown to the ground? Why is Noah, the Chinese cook’s son, suddenly making Lizzie question everything she has known to be true? Ignoring the rules of race and class, Lizzie and Noah must put the pieces together in a heart-stopping race to save the people they love.

Includes a Note Read by the Author.

About The Author

Gennifer Choldenko is the New York Times bestselling and Newbery Honor–winning author of many popular children’s books, including Notes from a Liar and Her Dog, If a Tree Falls at Lunch Period, Al Capone Does My Shirts, Al Capone Shines My Shoes, Al Capone Does My Homework, and No Passengers Beyond This Point. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she hopes never to see a rat. Dead or otherwise. Visit her online at choldenko.com.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Lisa on August 15, 2015

Finally got to finish and loved it. I think YA historical fiction is the best because the history is added in such a way that it is interesting and makes a great story. Full review to come on my blog, Lisa Loves Literature, soon.......more

Goodreads review by Brenda on August 24, 2017

Recently, there was a Nerdy Book Club blog post entitled, "Pulse-pounding Historical Fiction." This isn't due out till August but would hold its own on that list. Definitely one to give to those kids who claim to hate historical fiction as well as those who love it. Atmospheric, the sights, sounds a......more

Goodreads review by The Candid Cover on February 21, 2020

Full Review on The Candid Cover Chasing Secrets is a book that really has it all! This story is an excellent read that promotes history, while keeping readers on their toes. Choldenko has created another incredible middle grade historical fiction in Chasing Secrets. This time we learn about a deadly......more

Goodreads review by Meredith on August 25, 2015

Pros *A very entertaining historical fiction novel. *Unusual subjects-A modern recurrence of Bubonic Plague, San Francisco pre-1906 quake, women's rights, and Chinese-American life in the early 20th century. *Wide Appeal-The story includes hints of romance, action and derring-do, is based on true histo......more

Goodreads review by Emily on July 10, 2020

I really enjoyed this story about a headstrong girl living in turn-of-the-century San Francisco. Lizzie loves to help her father tend to his patients, and she longs to become a doctor as well, something that her Aunt Hortense just cannot abide. Girls are meant to be pretty and well-mannered, which i......more


Quotes

“The plot is enriched by winning characters, meaningful friendships, a taut atmosphere, and secrets multiplying as fast as the story’s rats.” —Booklist starred review 

Not only will this novel hold a proud spot on the deadly disease shelf with Jim Murphy's An American Plague and Laurie Halse Anderson's Fever 1793, it's a vivid picture of 20th-century San Francisco and a stirring story of a lonely, funny girl trying to be her "best true self." —Shelf Awareness starred review