Fever Year: The Killer Flu of 1918: A Graphic Novel

From the Sibert Honor-winning creator behind The Unwanted and Drowned City comes one of the darkest episodes in American history: the Spanish Influenza epidemic of 1918. This nonfiction graphic novel explores the causes, effects, and lessons learned from a major epidemic in our past, and is the perfect tool for engaging readers of all ages, especially teens and tweens learning from home.

New Year's Day, 1918. America has declared war on Germany and is gathering troops to fight. But there's something coming that is deadlier than any war.

When people begin to fall ill, most Americans don't suspect influenza. The flu is known to be dangerous to the very old, young, or frail. But the Spanish flu is exceptionally violent. Soon, thousands of people succumb. Then tens of thousands . . . hundreds of thousands and more. Graves can't be dug quickly enough.

What made the influenza of 1918 so exceptionally deadly--and what can modern science help us understand about this tragic episode in history? With a journalist's discerning eye for facts and an artist's instinct for true emotion, Sibert Honor recipient Don Brown sets out to answer these questions and more in Fever Year.

Author: Don Brown
Publisher: Clarion Books
Published: 02/03/2026
Pages: 96
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.65lbs
Size: 9.90h x 6.40w x 0.30d
ISBN: 9780063489592
Audience: Young Adult

Accelerated Reader:
Reading Level: 6.7
Point Value: 1
Interest Level: Middle Grade Plus
Quiz #/Name: 506214 / Fever Year: The Killer Flu of 1918

About the Author
Brown, Don: -

Don Brown is the winner of the YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction and the Sibert Honor. He is the author and illustrator of many nonfiction graphic novels for teens and picture book biographies. He has been widely praised for his resonant storytelling and his delicate watercolor paintings that evoke the excitement, humor, pain, and joy of lives lived with passion. School Library Journal has called him "a current pacesetter who has put the finishing touches on the standards for storyographies." He lives in New York with his family.

booksbybrown.com

Instagram: @donsart