Summary; (Courtesy of Amazon.com) Eel has troubles of his own: As an orphan and a "mudlark," he spends his days in the filthy River Thames, searching for bits of things to sell. He's being hunted by Fisheye Bill Tyler, and a nastier man never walked the streets of London. And he's got a secret that costs him four precious shillings a week to keep safe.
But even for Eel, things aren't so bad until that fateful August day in 1854—the day the Great Trouble begins. Mr. Griggs, the tailor, is the first to get sick, and soon it's clear that the deadly cholera—the "blue death"—has come to Broad Street.
Everyone believes that cholera is spread through poisonous air. But one man, Dr. John Snow, has a different theory. As the cholera epidemic surges, it's up to Eel and his best friend Florrie to gather the evidence to prove Snow's theory before the entire neighborhood is wiped out.
Review: The Great Trouble: A Mystery of London, the Blue Death, and a Boy Called Eel takes the facts of the tragic 1850’s event of the London cholera epidemic, known as the Blue Death, and turns it into an interesting and informative novel for Young Adults. Many of the characters in the story as based on real people who were instrumental in finding the true reason for the spread of cholera. The novel doesn’t sugarcoat life during that time; depicting how children and women had no rights if the husband died and the unsanitary living conditions during that time. The Great Trouble may make a few students squeamish but the mystery and adventure will probably keep them hooked into the story. The fictional main character, Eel, will take students on an adventure into a stark time in history. I can see boys and girls who enjoy historical fiction or those who are interested in the scientific discovery process enjoying the story. Because of it’s raw depiction of life on the streets for parentless children and the vivid description of the effects of cholera on the human body, this may not be the best book for younger readers.
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