September Book of the Month, CODE ORANGE

Code Orange by Caroline B Cooney

Mitty is a high school boy and the main character of this thriller that takes place in New York City. Mitty’s biology class is doing a research paper on infectious disease and he is assigned smallpox. After procrastinating, he eventually starts the assignment but because he is stuck at his country home, he is limited to his mother’s collection of old books. Mitty discovers an envelope that contains 100 year old scabs from smallpox patients in an old medical textbook. He touches and sniffs the scabs.
Mitty realizes he could have contracted the disease from handling the smallpox scabs and spread it to all of New York City. To make matters worse, Mitty post his concerns on the World Wide Web where terrorist find him, then kidnap him with intentions of using him as a biological weapon. Is the virus still active? How can he prevent an epidemic?
Disturbing descriptions of the smallpox disease are discussed in Code Orange and the danger that still exist with infectious diseases and bioterrorism.