From New York Times bestselling author Lindsey Fitzharris, a riveting middle grade nonfiction book about diseases that have shaped the course of human history.


* " Chock-full of awesomely appalling medical history." — Shelf Awareness, starred review
* " Engaging, informative, but also gross." — School Library Journal, starred review

School Library Journal Best Book of 2023
Cybils 2023 Nonfiction Middle Grade Finalist
2024 Best STEM Books Award from National Science Teaching Association
2024 Grateful American Book Prize Honorable Mention

Smallpox! Rabies! Black Death! Throughout history humankind has been plagued by . . . well, by plagues. The symptoms of these diseases were gruesome—but the remedies were even worse.

Get to know the ickiest illnesses that have infected humans and affected civilizations through the ages. Each chapter explores the story of a disease, including the scary symptoms, kooky cures, and brilliant breakthroughs that it spawned. Medical historian and bestselling author Lindsey Fitzharris lays out the facts with her trademark wit, and Adrian Teal adds humor with cartoons and caricatures drawn in pitch black and blood red. Diseases covered in this book include bubonic plague, smallpox, rabies, tuberculosis, cholera, and scurvy.

Thanks to centuries of sickness and a host of history's most determined plague-busters, this riveting book features everything you've ever wanted to know about the world's deadliest diseases.