   | Full Text Reviews: Booklist - 04/01/2018 There are lots of books for teens about WWI, but this vivid account takes a fairly fresh approach: Davis (In the Shadow of Liberty, 2016) argues persuasively that the Spanish flu pandemic had as much—if not more—of an effect on the outcome of WWI than any military strategy. Citing plenty of primary sources, Davis lays out how the pandemic was spread, the largely ineffective efforts to curtail it, and the many ways government officials, swept up in waves of nationalism, ignored the advice of medical professionals, which ultimately made the pandemic worse. Davis lands hard on that last point—“The story of the Spanish flu . . . is about how important it is to guard against unreasoning terror that has no basis in fact or science”—and although that sentiment occasionally gets lost in the staggering statistics and often-gruesome personal accounts, it’s one that will ring especially true for today’s young readers. Robust back matter provides further context, and plenty of historical photos and reproductions bolster the text. Engaging and illuminating. - Copyright 2018 Booklist. School Library Journal - 04/01/2018 Gr 7 Up—Davis, author of the "Don't Know Much About" series and In the Shadows of Liberty, applies his wide-ranging knowledge to this history of World War I and the Spanish Flu. Davis pulls no punches in his gruesome descriptions of medical wards, of entire families found dead in their homes, of a troop transport ship that became a "floating chamber of horrors," and how doctors were totally at a loss. He includes an abundance of first-hand testimonies, statistics, and a variety of images: a young, uniformed Ernest Hemingway; an advertisement designed by an up-and-coming Walt Disney, who survived the flu; and scenes from the trenches. The details often hit forcefully home, providing context. However, the three narrative threads—the story of war, the evolution of virus, and a history of medicine—are not as tightly woven as in Albert Marrin's Very, Very, Very Dreadful: The Influenza Pandemic of 1918. VERDICT A solid work of nonfiction, but in the light of better options, a secondary purchase.—Blake Holman, St. Joseph County Public Library, IN - Copyright 2018 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission. Loading...
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