Mr. Lynch's science research assignment on contagious diseases requires that students use at least four books.
"Books?" questions Mitty Blake. "Nobody uses books anymore. They're useless, especially in science. Facts change too fast." But Mr. Lynch wants students to use books for their report and not rely totally on the Internet. Mitty, a master procrastinator and slacker when in comes to school assignments, finds himself in a jam because he doesn't have any books on smallpox and it's the weekend and he's at his family's vacation home without access to book stores or libraries AND he has to show Mr. Lynch the books he's using tomorrow. So Mitty decides to use some of the antique medical books his mom uses for her interior decorating business. When he opens
Principles of Contagious Disease, printed in Boston in 1899, Mitty is skeptical that he will find any useful information. Within the book he finds an envelope and hand-written upon the envelope in fountain pen ink is the label
"Scabs--VM epidemic, 1902, Boston". Mitty opens the envelope, handles the some fragile scabs which crumble in his finger tips, and rubs his itchy nose. Has Mitty just infected himself with variola major, an airborn virus? Will he be the new Typhoid Mary of New York City? Code Orange will keep you turning pages to find out what will happen to Mitty, his parents, his friends and classmates and New York City.
