[LM_NET] BOOK: Code Orange by Cooney

["Anthony C. Doyle" <tdoyle@MUHSD.K12.CA.US>]

Cooney, Caroline B., Code Orange.

Mitty is a slacker.  He is the king of procrastinators and is in serious 
jeopardy of failing out of advanced biology.  No advanced bio would mean 
less contact with Olivia, his favorite part of biology.  To stay in the 
class he has to do his infectious disease report.  In true 
procrastinator fashion he begins his report at the last minute when his 
only sources are antique medical books.  In one he finds an envelope 
with scabs from a victim of variola major (a.k.a. small pox).  Without 
thinking Mitty handles the scabs, some of which crumble to dust.

As Mitty begins his research, often prodded on by Olivia he begins to 
suspect he may be infected with the deadly, highly-infectious disease. 
Mitty posts messages on several on-line, infectious disease bulletin 
boards, attracting the attention of the FBI, CDC, and some 
not-very-bright terrorists. Setting up an exciting, though at times not 
very believable, climax.

Olivia and Mitty’s best buddy hate each other but pull together to try 
and help Mitty.  Their defiance of school and federal authorities is not 
very realistic or convincing and seems to lead only to them taking long 
walks and worrying about Mitty.  Ultimately Mitty is left to his own 
devices and must defeat the terrorists by himself.

Overall the book is readable but not Cooney’s best work.  The detailed 
information that Mitty finds about small pox is very interesting and 
gory enough to hold teens attention.  Appropriate for middle and high 
school collections.

-- 
----
Tony Doyle, Librarian
Livingston High School, Livingston, CA
tdoyle@muhsd.k12.ca.us
<Http://www.lhs.muhsd.k12.ca.us/library/index.htm>
"You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture.  Just get
people to stop reading them."-- Ray Bradbury

"One of the standard problems with the universe is that it's large 
enough that unlikely things happen pretty often."--Nigel Sharp, U.S. 
National Science Foundation

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