Rebellion 1776, by Laurie Halse Anderson

(Hardback, 416 pages, first published in 2025)

Three starred reviews!

From New York Times bestselling author Laurie Halse Anderson comes a “thoroughly researched, emotionally resonant” (Booklist, starred review) historical fiction middle grade adventure about a girl struggling to survive amid a smallpox epidemic and the seething Revolutionary War.

In the spring of 1776, thirteen-year-old Elsbeth Culpepper wakes to the sound of cannons. It’s the Siege of Boston, the Patriots’ massive drive to push the Loyalists out that turns the city into a chaotic war zone. Elsbeth’s father—her only living relative—has gone missing, leaving her alone and adrift in a broken town while desperately seeking employment to avoid the orphanage.

Just when things couldn’t feel worse, the smallpox epidemic sweeps across Boston. Now, Bostonians must fight for their lives against an invisible enemy in addition to the visible one. While a treatment is being frantically fine-tuned, thousands of people rush in from the countryside begging for inoculation. At the same time, others refuse it, for the treatment is crude at best and at times more dangerous than the disease itself.

Elsbeth, who had smallpox as a small child and is now immune, finds work taking care of a large, wealthy family with discord of their own as they await a turn at inoculation, but as the epidemic and the revolution rage on, will she find her father?

Storyglory Cautions: (1) This book includes descriptions of and death from smallpox -- not suited for the queasy reader. (2) There is light romance but nothing inappropriate, as well as some wartime imagery and violence (Elsbeth is at one point threatened and receives a small knife wound). (3) Smallpox innoculation and the controversy surrounding it are part of the storyline. However, the methods used for vaccination today and in 1776 are so wildly different that readers should be able to enjoy the story without dwelling on modern-day vaccine debates.

Recommended Age: 12+