From New York Times bestselling author Laurie Halse Anderson comes an eerily timely historical fiction middle grade adventure about a girl struggling to survive amid a smallpox epidemic,the publicΓÇÖs fear of vaccinesand the seething Revolutionary War. In the spring of 1776thirteen-year-old Elspeth Culpepper wakes to the sound of cannons. ItΓÇÖs the Siege of Bostonthe PatriotsΓÇÖ massive drive to push the Loyalists out that turns the city into a chaotic war zone. ElspethΓÇÖs fatherΓÇöher only living relativeΓÇöhas gone missingleaving her alone and adrift in a broken town while desperately seeking employment to avoid the orphanage. Just when things couldnΓÇÖt feel worsethe smallpox epidemic sweeps across Boston. NowBostonians must fight for their lives against an invisible enemy in addition to the visible one. While a vaccine is being frantically fine-tunedthousands of people rush in from the countryside begging for inoculation. At the same timeothers refuse protectionfor the vaccine is crude at best and at times more dangerous than the disease itself. Elspethwho had smallpox as a small child and is now immunefinds work taking care of Abigail Adams and her extended family as they await a turn at inoculationbut as the epidemic and the revolution rage onwill she find her father?