Terrible Typhoid Mary: A True Story of the Deadliest Cook in America

by Susan Campbell Bartoletti

Overview

What happens when a person's reputation has been forever damaged? With archival photographs and text among other primary sources, this riveting biography of Mary Mallon by the Sibert medalist and Newbery Honor winner Susan Bartoletti looks beyond the tabloid scandal of Mary's controversial life. How she was treated by medical and legal officials reveals a lesser-known story of human and constitutional rights, entangled with the science of pathology and enduring questions about who Mary Mallon really was. How did her name become synonymous with deadly disease? And who is really responsible for the lasting legacy of Typhoid Mary? This thorough exploration includes an author's note, timeline, annotated source notes, and bibliography.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780544313675
Publisher:	HMH Books
Publication date:	08/04/2015
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	240
Sales rank:	540,158
Product dimensions:	6.58(w) x 7.76(h) x 0.88(d)
Lexile:	980L (what's this?)
Age Range:	10 - 14 Years

About the Author

Susan Campbell Bartoletti is the author of  the Newbery Honor book Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow, the Robert F. Sibert Medal–winning Black Potatoes: The Story of the Great Irish Famine, and TheyCalled Themselves the KKK. Her work has received dozens of other awards and honors, including the NCTE Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction. A former teacher, she is now a full-time writer living in Moscow, Pennsylvania. Visit her website at  www.scbartoletti.com.

Editorial Reviews

06/01/2015
In this thoroughly researched biography, Bartoletti (They Called Themselves the KKK) seeks to illuminate the backstory of “Typhoid Mary,” who allegedly infected nearly 50 individuals with the disease. Mary Mallon cooked for wealthy families in turn-of-the-20th-century New York City until she became the first documented “healthy carrier” of typhoid in the U.S. and was imprisoned in hospitals for most of her remaining life. Little is known about Mallon outside of one six-page letter she wrote, official documents, newspaper reports, journal articles, and other firsthand accounts of her. Though Bartoletti forms an objective portrait of Mallon’s case, she often has to rely on conjecture (“Mary probably didn’t understand that she could be a healthy carrier”), filling in gaps using deductive reasoning based on facts from that era. In the end, this study of Mallon’s ill-fated life is as much an examination of the period in which she lived, including the public’s ignorance about the spread and treatment of disease, the extreme measures health officials took to advance science, and how yellow journalism’s sensationalized stories could ruin someone’s reputation. Ages 10–up. Agent: Ginger Knowlton, Curtis Brown. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

* "Bartoletti tells the woman’s story with empathy and understanding [and] explores the myriad violations of Mallon’s civil rights and her unusually harsh treatment in comparison to other healthy typhoid carriers. Energetic, even charming prose will easily engage readers."
—School Library Journal, starred review

* "Expertly weaving together both historical background and contemporary knowledge about disease and public health, Bartoletti enlivens Mallon's story with engrossing anecdotes and provocative critical inquiry while debunking misconceptions."
—Booklist, starred review

"[A] thoroughly researched biography."
—Publishers Weekly

* "Bartoletti skillfully weaves the answers into the beginning of the story, before moving on to Soper's cat-and-mouse game of tracking Mary down and then keeping her quarantined for most of the rest of her life...excellent nonfiction."
—Horn Book Magazine, starred review

"A very comprehensive and engaging account of the sad life story of Mary Mallon."
—VOYA

"Bartoletti delivers a fast-moving biography of Mallon herself...Enthusiastic and accessible, but it remains respectful, offering understanding and empathy for the numerous people affected by the outbreaks that followed in Mallon's wake."
—Bulletin


 

From the Publisher

★ 05/01/2015
Gr 5 Up—This well-researched biography of Mary Mallon, also known as Typhoid Mary, begins in 1906, when Mallon was hired as a cook for a wealthy family vacationing in Oyster Bay, Long Island. The outbreak of typhoid that swept through the household a few weeks later turned out to be a pivotal event that forever changed her life. George Soper, a sanitation engineer and typhoid expert, was hired to discover the source of the disease. He eventually determined that Mallon was what was known as a healthy carrier: although she experienced no symptoms of typhoid, her body continued to produce the bacteria, which she inadvertently shed. Soper took his discovery to the New York City Board of Health, and soon thereafter, Mallon was arrested and quarantined against her will on North Brother Island. Mallon has often been described as ignorant and a menace to society due to her refusal to stop working as a cook when she was later briefly released from quarantine, but Bartoletti tells the woman's story with empathy and understanding. The author also explores the myriad violations of Mallon's civil rights and her unusually harsh treatment in comparison to other healthy typhoid carriers (nationwide 50 carriers were identified at the time, but only Mary was quarantined). Energetic, even charming prose (chapter headings include "In Which Mrs. Warren Has a Servant Problem") will easily engage readers. Pair this work with Gail Jarrow's Fatal Fever: Tracking Down Typhoid Mary (Boyds Mills, 2015). VERDICT Middle grade biography lovers will gravitate toward this compelling title.—Ragan O'Malley, Saint Ann's School, Brooklyn, NY

School Library Journal

2015-05-18
A creative approach, strong on vivid details and words that appeal to the senses, animates this biography of Typhoid Mary. It opens like a novel, with a scene in 1906 of a wealthy woman firing her cook. In "a terrible fix" to find a new one, she hires an Irish immigrant named Mary Mallon, who, unknowingly, turns out to be a typhoid-fever carrier later dubbed Typhoid Mary. The chapter's title, "In Which Mrs. Warren Has a Servant Problem," and its final one-sentence cliffhanger, "Mary's life was about to change forever," reflect literary techniques typically found in fiction, while art nouveau typeface for chapter titles and a closing "Photo Album" create an old-fashioned tone. The chronological narrative quotes from such primary sources as contemporary newspapers and books and incorporates information about the disease and the fight to eliminate it. In trying to supplement limited personal sources about Mallon, Bartoletti bogs down her writing with language like "perhaps," "most likely," "must have," and "may have." Responsible though such introductions to supposition are, the result is a narrative that feels uncertain and may have readers wondering about unvoiced alternative scenarios. One section, meant to tie the past to the present, misinterprets a Gallup poll, incorrectly stating that most Americans don't trust their local governments. Awkward attempts to improve on an inherently interesting topic undermine this otherwise fine account. (Nonfiction. 10-14)

Kirkus Reviews

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