Snow and Eel’s deadline looms, and Eel’s past closes in on him, readers will feel the same sense of urgency-and excitement-as the characters themselves. Hopkinson (Titanic: Voices from the Disaster) adeptly recreates the crowded, infested streets of London, but it’s her distinct, layered characters and turbulent, yet believable plot that make this a captivating read. Snow, have a different theory-that it’s being spread through a local water pump-which they set out to prove before the death toll escalates further. When the first cholera case hits, the town blames the polluted air, but Eel and his mentor, Dr. Eel, a hardworking and bighearted kid with no shortage of crummy luck, is being hunted by a notoriously mean crook, who happens to be his stepfather. “For who love suspense, drama, and mystery.Set amid the 1854 London cholera outbreak, Hopkinson’s attention-grabbing story of Eel, an orphan who survives by combing the filthy banks of the Thames for anything he might sell, is a delightful combination of race-against-the-clock medical mystery and outwit-the-bad-guys adventure. and entertaining.” - School Library Journal, Starred “Hopkinson illuminates a pivotal chapter in the history of public health.

Snow’s theory-before the entire neighborhood is wiped out. As the epidemic surges, it’s up to Eel and his best friend, Florrie, to gather evidence to prove Dr. But even for Eel, things aren’t so bad until that fateful August day in 1854-the day the deadly cholera epidemic (“blue death”) comes to Broad Street.Įveryone believes that cholera is spread through poisonous air.

And he’s got a secret that costs him four precious shillings a week to keep safe. He’s being hunted by Fisheye Bill Tyler, and a nastier man never walked the streets of London. “A delightful combination of race-against-the-clock medical mystery and outwit-the-bad-guys adventure.” - Publishers Weekly, StarredĮel has troubles of his own: As an orphan and a “mudlark,” he spends his days in the filthy River Thames, searching for bits of things to sell. Ever since his parents' deaths, Eel's been making his own way with a combination of odd jobs, including cleaning animal cages for well-respected medical man Dr. The suspenseful tale of two courageous kids and one inquisitive scientist who teamed up to stop an epidemic. The Great Trouble combines elements from both these genres in a story of one boy's efforts to stop the deadly 1854 Broad Street London cholera epidemic.

The Great Trouble by Deborah Hopkinson