Plague Year
by Stephanie S. Tolan

Subjects: Prejudice, Relationships (Friendship), Death, School Life, Human Nature
Genre: Realistic Fiction

Molly always befriends the downtrodden, the bullied, and the underdog and she usually drags me along.  I'm her best friend David. So when she befriended Bran Slocum, the new kid in the town of Ridgewood, I wasn't surprised. I mean after all he acts and dresses differently than the rest of us and he is the target of the town bullies. Naturally Molly decided she was his new best friend and that I, Mr. Popular, should be too. If I had known what horrible secret he was hiding and how the revelation of that secret would spread a plague of hysteria and prejudice through the town which culminated in murder, I probably would have told Molly to drop dead. But I didn't know and now we must all live with the consequences of our actions. The Plague Year by Stephanie Tolan.

Booktalk prepared by Janice Bailey, East Central High Librarian