Chasing Secrets
Random House Children's Books · Paperback · July 19, 2016
Newbery Honor–winning author Gennifer Choldenko deftly combines humor, tragedy, fascinating historical detail, and a medical mystery in this exuberant new novel.
We earn from qualifying purchases.
- Who it’s for
- A lively historical mystery pairs medical intrigue with humor, tragedy, and the city’s hidden tensions.
- Genres
- Mysteries & Detective Stories, 20th-Century U.S., Prejudice & Racism
- Published
- Random House Children's Books, July 19, 2016
Nearest books
Matched by what the books are about, then ordered by what their readers also loved.
The Hired GirlLaura Amy Schlitz59% matchShares 20th-Century U.S.
The Fourteenth GoldfishJennifer L. Holm57% match
Al Capone Does My ShirtsGennifer Choldenko56% matchShares Mysteries & Detective Stories and 20th-Century U.S.
A Year Down YonderRichard Peck58% matchShares 20th-Century U.S.
Not NothingGayle Forman53% match
The Someday SuitcaseCorey Ann Haydu53% match
The Blackbird GirlsAnne Blankman56% match
A Soft Place to LandJanae Marks53% matchShares Mysteries & Detective Stories
For older readers: Outrun the Moon, Hattie Ever After, Maud
Start with three books, and this one can be the first.
Members get a new edition every morning: a route out from their books to essays, research and talks, with the reason for each.
Start with this bookAbout this book
Newbery Honor–winning author Gennifer Choldenko deftly combines humor, tragedy, fascinating historical detail, and a medical mystery in this exuberant new novel. San Francisco, 1900. The Gilded Age. A fantastic time to be alive for lots of people . . . but not thirteen-year-old Lizzie Kennedy, stuck at Miss Barstow’s snobby school for girls. Lizzie’s secret passion is science, an unsuitable subject for finishing-school girls.
Continue reading
Lizzie lives to go on house calls with her physician father. On those visits to his patients, she discovers a hidden dark side of the city—a side that’s full of secrets, rats, and rumors of the plague. The newspapers, her powerful uncle, and her beloved papa all deny that the plague has reached San Francisco. So why is the heart of the city under quarantine? Why are angry mobs trying to burn Chinatown to the ground? Why is Noah, the Chinese cook’s son, suddenly making Lizzie question everything she has known to be true? Ignoring the rules of race and class, Lizzie and Noah must put the pieces together in a heart-stopping race to save the people they love. Winner of a Los Angeles Public Library FOCAL (Friends of Children and Literature) Award Nominated for: Pennsylvania Young Reader’s Choice Awards Tennessee Volunteer State Book Award (Middle School division) Missouri Association of School Librarians (MASL) Readers Award California Library Association’s Beatty Award, Eureka List
History Under Pressure
A lively historical mystery pairs medical intrigue with humor, tragedy, and the city’s hidden tensions.
Come here for
- A science-minded girl, a medical mystery, and San Francisco in 1900
- History shaped by rumors, quarantine, and racial prejudice
Expect
- Lizzie’s curiosity pushes against the rules of school and society
- A brisk race to uncover what’s happening and protect loved ones
Where it sits
| Prejudice & Racism | 60% |
|---|---|
| Mysteries & Detective Stories | 48% |
| 20th-Century U.S. | 41% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- Illness & Injury
- 20th-Century U.S.
- Prejudice & Racism
- Authors
- Gennifer Choldenko
- Publisher
- Random House Children's Books
- Published
- July 19, 2016
- Format
- Paperback
- Reading lane
- Illness & Injury