Breath
by Donna Jo Napoli
Salz is a boy afflicted with a strange disease -- he coughs and coughs and
cannot catch his breath. The only way he can stay alive is by doing things
that make him an outcast: joining a coven, throwing himself into a handstand
when the fits overtake him, avoiding the ale that his brothers and all the
townspeople drink.
Salz lives in a time of superstition and fear, in the medieval town of
Hameln. This summer his bare-bones existence has been more fearsome than
ever. Salz's father and brothers are affected by horrifying fits. The rest
of the townspeople are gripped by a plague of madness. And the entire town
is visited by a pestilence of rats -- rats that crawl in their soup bowls,
swarm in their sick beds, jump into their babies' cradles. Only Salz
remains unaffected. But is that because he is innocent? Or is he the
devil himself?
Pied Piper
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