I read this book at the same time as Susan Vreeland's "Clara and Mr. Tiffany" which is an adult novel set in the same time period (early 1900s New York City). So I was fully imersed in the culture of the time as I was reading it. This novel is written in journal format from Prudence's point of view. She takes a job working as an assistant/secretary to a disease hunter at the Deptartment of Health and Sanitation. She's very excited to be doing something that she feels is of value and uses her brain. However, she and her employer are on the track of a typhoid outbreak, one caused by the infamous "Typhoid Mary."

The department's increasingly forceful efforts to track Mary down and convince her that she is spreading disease, despite being healthy, at a time when germ theory was not at all understood by the public cause Prudence distress. At the same time, she is encouraged by the advice of a woman doctor on the case to attend medical school herself.

What was most interesting to me about this book were twofold. First, Prudence has to walk a very fine line as a pioneer. The culture in which she was raised & the school she attended expected one thing from her, but she wanted more. Also the case of Mary Mallon (Typhoid Mary) is a tale in trajedy. Mary just wanted to live and work. She felt she was persecuted. In the afterword, it is noted that ultimately, she did live most of her life in isolation from others because she could not be cured and continued to be infectious. I think there are some really great opportunities for discussion here about individual vs. community rights.