Everyone likes Josie, except the spoiled and arrogant Billy Detwiler. He calls her Pharmacy Girl, but it is no compliment. As the hazy days of September 1918 drift into the deadly autumn of Spanish influenza, twelve-year-old Josie Winslow's everyday problems of school and friends, even the war effort at home, become insignificant as everyone battles the epidemic. Josie's parents try to isolate her from the flu, but Josie is no slacker. She faces Billy in a class election, raises money for the Liberty Loan, and steps up to help the family when her mother comes down with influenza. Josie catches the flu after helping the people she loves--and hates--to survive.
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