SuitabookIllness and misunderstanding
Salz has cystic fibrosis, though people around him cannot identify it, and he is treated as an outcast. His grandmother helps him survive.
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Book details
Donna Jo Napoli - Author
This is a historical survival story about a medically misunderstood boy whose knowledge becomes crucial during a frightening crisis. It combines illness, family rejection, poisonous drink, altered perception, community disorder and moral danger.
Salz is a boy afflicted with cystic fibrosis -- though in the Middle Ages in Saxony no one can identify it as such. Instead he is an outcast, living with his unfeeling father and superstitious brothers in a hovel outside Hameln. His grandmother has kept Salz alive by having him avoid the mead and beer commonly drunk by all and by teaching him how to clear his lungs.When the townsfolk of Hameln are affected by a mold that grows on the hops -- poisoning their mead and beer -- Salz is one of the few who are unaffected. The mold's effect is hallucinogenic, and soon Hameln is in the grips of a plague of madness, followed by a plague of rats. It is only Salz who can proclaim the truth -- although it might cost him his life.
Book Brief
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Sign in for personalised guidanceThis is a historical survival story about a medically misunderstood boy whose knowledge becomes crucial during a frightening crisis. It combines illness, family rejection, poisonous drink, altered perception, community disorder and moral danger.
Salz has cystic fibrosis, though people around him cannot identify it, and he is treated as an outcast. His grandmother helps him survive.
A mould affecting hops poisons the town’s mead and beer, producing hallucinations and madness; Salz is among the few unaffected and can proclaim the truth.
Some readers may need preparation for a child’s chronic illness, social exclusion, an unfeeling parent, poisoning, hallucinations, madness, rats and the possibility that truth-telling could cost Salz his life.
This is a grounded book brief while Suitabook strengthens the analysis: the current material supports only a cautious reading; another book-specific source is still needed.
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