Laurie Halse (rhymes with "waltz") was born on October 23, 1961 in Potsdam, New York, to Methodist minister Frank A., Jr. and manager Joyce Holcomb Halse. The author says that she decided to become a writer in second grade. Her teacher taught the class how to write haiku. She enjoyed it a lot and hopes that every second grader will learn to write poetry. Halse soon started reading library books for hours. The magic of the elementary school library came alive in life. Heidi, one of Halse's favorite books, sparked her interest in foreign cultures.
Halse's creative thoughts began as a child.
For instance, Halse recalls trudging through the snow on her way to school. She imagined that she had changed into an enormous polar bear.
Writing also started as a little girl for Halse. She enjoyed watching her father write poetry and read the comics spread out on his office floor. She used her father's old typewriter for hours, writing newspaper columns, stories, and letters. Halse declares that the dictionary is her favorite book.
As a senior in high school, Halse visited Denmark as an American Field Service exchange student. She lived on a pig farm and learned to speak Danish. The author obtained an associate of arts degree in 1981 from Onandaga County Community College. She married Gregory H. Anderson, chief executive officer of Anderson Financial Systems, on June 19,1983. They raised two children: Stephanie and Meredith. The author earned a bachelor of science in Languages and Linguistics (B.S.L.L.) degree in 1984 from Georgetown University. Laurie Halse Anderson belongs to the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI). Anderson organized the SCBWI's Fall Conference in Philadelphia from 1994 to 1996.
She decided to write Fever 1793 after reading a newspaper article in August of 1993 that explained the yellow fever epidemic that devastated Philadelphia 200 years earlier. The U.S. capital in 1793, Philadelphia served as the political and cultural hub of the nation. Anderson believed these ingredients would create a story with strong elements of conflict and a rich background.
She also suspected that stories written about this period were rare. Moreover, her upbringing near Philadelphia inspired her to begin research.
Researching the idea proved to be no simple task, however. It took two years.
Anderson read about the period's archit...
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...is quickly becoming.
When Nell contracts yellow fever, Mattie and Eliza follow the French medical treatment: fresh air, rest, and fluids. Her suggestion works, and Nell heals. Nell symbolizes hope for a brighter future, and she enables Mattie to take on the responsibility of adulthood.
At the novel's resolution, Mattie's character transforms as she realizes that she must persevere. She knows that she has many choices. Mattie cultivates her friendship with Nathaniel. She opens up the coffeehouse with Eliza as her partner and begins to implement her dreams for a growing business. Nell stays with her and depends on her like a mother.
Lucinda returns from the country in ill health. Forced into a life of leisure, Lucinda must also depend on and trust in Mattie to run the coffeehouse. Lucinda begins to respect Mattie's choices and to treat her with respect and compassion.
Anderson does an excellent job of developing believable characters with realistic themes set against a rich background. She shows how this disease changed her characters, much as horrific life events change real lives. Young adults will emerge from this novel with a sense of hope, perseverance, and understanding.
At some point in a person's life, they must make the transition from childhood to adulthood. Many of a persons early life experiences can contribute to this transition, even if it is the simplest of things. Yellow Fever hit Philadelphia hard in 1793. It also hit hard in the book Fever: 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson. In this book, fourteen year-old Mattie Cook?s life gets turned upside-down when Yellow Fever strikes Philadelphia. In her adventure, Mattie must show responsibility, and experience the pain of death before she matures into an adult.
The yellow-fever started in Memphis, Tennessee in a restaurant and soon spread fast across the state and neighboring states. “Yellow fever, which is carried by mosquitos, originally came from West Africa and was brought to the United States on slaves ships” (History, 2009). The impact of the yellow-fever blamed and hated African Americans for spreading it in America. Some politicians that wanted to abolish slavery took this event as something positive for the black. The antislavery followers viewed yellow-fever as the slave owners fault since it was their slave ships that brought the infected to US soil. In the end, this influence both has a good and bad affect for the African American
S.E. Hinton’s inspiration for writing started in grade school. Grade school inspired her love for reading. She believes that sometimes, reading and writing were the only things that kept her going, because you love it
Murphy, Jim. An American Plague: the True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793. New York, NY: Clarion Books, 2003. Print.
Exotic pets threaten the safety of the community for they pose potential risks of injury and fatality. Natural animal instincts and lack of proper care can trigger destructive behaviours of animals, injuring their owners or other community members. There has been a total of 543 human injuries and 75 deaths as a result of exotic pets, including 52 year old woman killed by a Bengali tiger (http://channel.nat......). These numbers illustrate the risk that exotic animals pose to owners and community members. Keith Gisser, an exotic reptile owner claims he's “not the kind of animal owner neighbours need to worry about”, yet Brian Johnson Gisser's neighbour says on of the reptile owner's snakes escaped into his backyard (www.wkyc.com....). Injury and fatalities are a risk, endangering the community when exotic animals are kept as pets which is yet another reason why owning them should be illegal.
...hem, Hugo seems delighted by the idea. And so through Sara’s education and self-improvement, she finds real love, love that is not only right for her but also her family.
Glasner, Joyce. “Yellow Fever.” Canada’s History 91.3 (2011): 46-47. Academic Search Premier. Web. 6 Mar. 2014.
Mary Cassatt had a wonderful childhood filled with travel and a good education. Mary Stevenson Cassatt was born in Allegheny Pennsylvania, which is now part of Pittsburgh on May 22, 1885 (Encyclopedia of World Biography 2). She was one of seven children, two of which did not make it past infancy (Creative Commons License 3). Her childhood was spent moving throughout Germany and France, (Creative Commons License 4) until her family moved back to Pennsylvania, then continued moving eastward to Lancaster and then to Philadelphia (Creative Commons License 3), where Cassatt started school at age six (Creative Commons License 3). Then continued her schooling at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in
Maggie, the protagonist, lives in a slum on the lower East side of the Bowery in NYC. She lives in the tenement housing with her mother, Mary and her brother, Jimmie. It’s the turn of the 18th century and this Irish immigrant family is poor. Mary is a drunk and her brother, Jimmie drinks and fights with everyone. Maggie doesn’t go to school because everybody has to work. She works in the sweatshop, sewing clothes. Her life is filled with poverty and gloom. Maggie meets Pete and she is impressed that Pete wears nice outfits. Pete likes her too. He takes her to the live theater plenty of times. She’s sees his clothing as a symbol of wealth and that he takes her out to places where she never been before. She sees Pete and the money he spends on her as a way out of her dreary life. She leaves her home and goes to live with Pete to have a better life. She thinks he loves her, but she has gone to devil. Soon after Pete meets Nellie and he dumps Maggie. She has nowhere to go and so she goes home. Her family doesn’t allow her to come back. Mary tells her she is a disgrace and they ridicule her in front of all the neighbors. Even the little children are warned to stay away from her. Maggie leaves with nowhere to go. Pete tells her not to bother him; he doesn’t love her, now he’s in love with Nellie. No one is kind to her and so she begins to walk the streets. She turns to...
Even though cloning methods have been in use for an extended period of time, the idea of a clone was never thought to be realistic until recently. For thousands of years, humans have been cloning plants through asexual propagation. This is simply the process of stem cutting or grafting a mammal was performed in Switzerland nearly 20 years after the carrot plant where mice cells were cloned. Later, in 1997, Dolly the sheep’s mammary cells were cloned (Lee). This was a major success for science because it was the first time an adult cell was used in which results in a clone of the previous generation of the plant and is still a method used today. It wasn’t until 1958 when modern cloning began with a carrot and in 1964 when scientist John Gurdon started the beginning of animal cell cloning of toad tadpoles. The first successful clone of embryonic cell. After scientists gained a greater knowledge of the process of cloning, they realized that it could possibly be used to benefit the world. In 2001, the first endangered species, the bull gaur, was cloned, and in...
Most people argue that human cloning is not morally and ethically acceptable due to both religious concerns and long-term health problems. The notion of cloning organisms has always been troublesome because of unpredictable consequences. “Cloning represents a very clear, powerful, and immediate example in which we are in danger of turning procreation into manufacture” (C...
If a random individual were asked twenty years ago if he/she believed that science could clone an animal, most would have given a weird look and responded, “Are you kidding me?” However, that once crazy idea has now become a reality, and with this reality, has come debate after debate about the ethics and morality of cloning. Yet technology has not stopped with just the cloning of animals, but now many scientists are contemplating and are trying to find successful ways to clone human individuals. This idea of human cloning has fueled debate not just in the United States, but also with countries all over the world. I believe that it is not morally and ethically right to clone humans. Even though technology is constantly advancing, it is not reasonable to believe that human cloning is morally and ethically correct, due to the killing of human embryos, the unsafe process of cloning, and the resulting consequences of having deformed clones.
Lee took an interest in writing at 7 years old. She received her education at a public
What inspires her to write the story? As I read her biography I concluded that her personal life and experiences. she mentions that she started to write after her husband’s death. Which indicates that she was not allowed to write before and when in the story her husband
Every year, millions of animals experience painful, suffering and death due to results of scientific research as the effects of drugs, medical procedures, food additives, cosmetics and other chemical products. Basically, animal experimentation has played a dominant role in leading with new findings and human advantages. Animal research has had a main function in many scientific and medical advances in the past decade and is helping in the understanding of several diseases. While most people believe than animal testing is necessary, others are worried about the excessive suffering of this innocent’s creatures. The balance between the rights of animals and their use in medical research is a delicate issue with huge societal assumptions. Nowadays people are trying to understand and take in consideration these social implications based in animals rights. Even though, many people tend to disregard animals that have suffered permanent damage during experimentation time. Many people try to misunderstand the nature of life that animals just have, and are unable to consider the actual laboratory procedures and techniques that these creatures tend to be submitted. Animal experimentation must be excluded because it is an inhumane way of treat animals, it is unethical, and exist safer ways to test products without painful test.