Plum-Ucci, Carol.
STREAMS OF BABEL
Orlando : Harcourt, 2008
IL YA
ISBN 0152165568

(2 booktalks)

Trinity Falls, is just a small suburban town in southern New Jersey.  It is not any place you would expect to find anything interesting.  But now four teens have come down with a mysterious flu.  A flu that has killed two people already.  The doctors can't figure out what is causing the illness.  Even the CDC isn't sure what is going on.  But the kids seem to be getting worse.  Can a teen from the other side of the world help figure out what is going on?

Booktalk #2

Cora is a loner. She has been since her mother returned from her international journalism job, addicted to morphine, and hating to be around her “brat.” But she is concerned when her mother becomes so ill that she starts bleeding out of her nose, eyes, and ears. When the paramedics arrive, she is dead.  Along with the medics is a neighbor, Mr. Steckerman, an ex-FBI director who is now the regional supervisor for the USIC, the United States Intelligence Coalition. There had been a water scare a few months back about chemicals in the system but it had been checked and come out with flying colors. So why was he here? She tried to think and answer questions but all she wanted was to be alone. She had diarrhea all day and a killer headache. When they left she crawled into bed shivering with chills and fever. The next day there is another death in the neighborhood. Same symptoms, same cause of death: a brain aneurysm. But there was something more. Their tissues were like cooked noodles and the sinuses like jello. And like Cora, her two sons and a friend are all exhibiting the sickness that killed their mothers. 
Meanwhile in Pakistan, a young 16-year-old computer whiz is spying for the Americans through his family internet café. He has picked up chatter that says “They will anoint the waters with Red Vinegar—rivers will run red in Colony One.” Shahzad believes Colony One is in America but the USIC has not acted on it. They believe the Dark Continent mentioned in another chat room is Africa. But  in America, two funerals are taking place. There are so many cars that people have to park all along the street. The hard part is avoiding the huge water puddle that has somehow sprung up in front of Cora’s house.   (Rhode Island Teen Book Award nominee, 2010)