Another Fever Year? Making sense of pandemics with a historical graphic novel

Abstract

This qualitative study highlights how children's literature can serve as a springboard for discussing current events while making connections with a similar historical event. Undergraduate students enrolled in children's literature courses read the graphic novel Fever Year: The Killer Flu of 1918 and discussed the parallels between the book and the COVID-19 pandemic. Findings indicate strong text-to-self and text-to-world connections between the events of the flu of 1918 highlighted in the graphic novel and those of the COVID-19 pandemic. Connections included restrictions and closures, mask mandates, vaccine development, medical theories, and theories of spread. Information dissemination and consumption was a prominent theme.