num_pages: 368
description: It sounds like a fairy tale. He is a boy dressed in silks and white wigs and given the finest of classical educations. Raised by a group of rational philosophers known only by numbers, the boy and his mother -- a princess in exile from a faraway land -- are the only persons in their household assigned names. As the boy's regal mother, Cassiopeia, entertains the house scholars with her beauty and wit, young Octavian begins to question the purpose behind his guardians' fanatical studies. Only after he dares to open a forbidden door does he learn the hideous nature of their experiments -- and his own chilling role in them. Set against the disquiet of Revolutionary Boston, M. T. Anderson's extraordinary novel takes place at a time when American Patriots rioted and battled to win liberty while African slaves were entreated to risk their lives for a freedom they would never claim. The first of two parts, this deeply provocative novel reimagines the past as an eerie place that has startling resonance for readers today.
language: English
title: The Pox Party
titlecomplete: The Pox Party (The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, #1)
genres: American Revolution, Historical, Fantasy, Teen, African American, Young Adult, War, Historical Fiction, Audiobook, Fiction
ratings_count: 15247
places: Massachusetts, Boston, Massachusetts
series: The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation
awards: awardedAt: 1136102400000
name: National Book Award
category: Young People's Literature, awardedAt: 1167638400000
name: Michael L. Printz Award, awardedAt: 1136102400000
name: Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, awardedAt: 1167638400000
name: Boston Author's Club Young Reader Award, awardedAt: 1546329600000
name: Margaret A. Edwards Award
publisher: Candlewick Press