A 10-year-old becomes a patient at a tuberculosis sanitarium in 1935 New York.Halle's world is transformed when Mama begins coughing up blood one afternoon. Halle and Papa take her to the J.N. Adam Hospital in western New York, a 20-mile drive from their home. The sanitarium is stately and impressive, and, as their local doctor has pointed out, it welcomes everyone, regardless of race or socioeconomic status. But at home, Papa becomes short-tempered and remote. Wrapped up in his own worries, he seems oblivious to Halle's unhappiness. At school, Halle is shunned by classmates afraid of the disease. When Halle sets off on foot to get to her mother, she's stricken with sickness and becomes a patient at the hospital. Eventually Halle is placed in a dorm room with three other girls: Flossie, whose mother is a nurse at the hospital; Vivian, whose delicate paleness Halle finds striking; and Rita, an older girl whose well-off parents are uncomfortable around Flossie, who is Black (most characters are cued white). The book takes place nearly a decade before the use of antibiotics for TB, when treatment focused on fresh air and sunlight. Descriptions of the hospital's open-air porches and daily routines are smoothly incorporated, and Halle's fears for her own health and longing for her mother are relatable.A vivid work of historical fiction that explores how infectious disease can intersect with daily life. (author's note) (Historical fiction. 9-13)

Wendell’s well-constructed historical debut, set in 1930s Upstate New York, chronicles six months of dramatic changes in fifth grader Hallelujah “Halle” Grace Newton’s life as she and her family navigate the tuberculosis epidemic. When Halle’s mother—whom Halle considers as her loving, steadfast lodestar, unlike her father, who always seems angry with her—contracts tuberculosis and is admitted to a sanatorium 20 miles away, Halle’s life becomes a misery. She and her father test positive for the disease but remain asymptomatic; still, her schoolmates shun her. Her ill-conceived secret plan to walk to the sanatorium to be with her mother hastens Halle’s budding case of pneumonia, resulting in her admittance as a patient, too. As Halle recovers, she bonds with other children in the ward, all of them undergoing “sun curing or air curing” treatments, but still pines for her mother, whose health is not improving. Via unflinching depictions of tragedy and strife, richly rendered period detail, and emotionally honest interpretations of parent-child relationships, Wendell builds satisfying suspense as Halle breaks facility rules to help her mother recover and struggles to win her father’s affection. Historical notes conclude. Halle is white; supporting characters are racially diverse. Ages 8–12. (Jan.)