Plague Thieves
In 1665 London, Rose lives with her parents and brother Lem in an apartment over the family’s spice shop. She delights in helping her father create mixes of fragrant oils from the spices. Lem prefers to spend time with his unsavory friends. When the plague takes their mother and then their father falls ill, he directs Rose to make a special oil he believes will prevent or possibly cure plague, if a few drops are put on a cloth over the nose and mouth.
Father insists Lem and Rose flee, as he plans to burn the shop so no one else will catch the plague from his own illness. Reluctantly, they run as fire breaks out, taking only a few coins, Mother’s silver spoons, three small bottles of the oil, and their father’s final instruction to steal what they must to survive.
Rose is a realistic protagonist, reacting in age-appropriate ways to the challenges she faces. Readers ages 9-13 will enjoy this story and its theme of cobbling together your own family in the face of disaster, and will come away with a stronger sense of how it was to live in those times.
