Local author writes 'The Adventures of Francie Fitzgerald'

Francie, a 14-year-old girl living in Newark, New Jersey in the year 1885, stumbles upon a dead fox in a brush near her tenement.She noticed the fox had foam dripping from its open mouth while it stared directly at her. After browsing a newspaper article, she and her best friend, Sean, discover that a child nearby died a gruesome death from rabies. They made the connection that the fox had rabies as well.

Francie tries to live a normal life with her Irish immigrant family, but she is fearful because of the many wild dogs that roam freely around her neighborhood. What she dreads most finally happens; her brother and his friends are attacked by a rabid dog which is a death sentence. Her journey for help leads her to Dr. Louis Pasteur in Paris.

The novel, "The Adventures of Francie Fitzgerald" by Victoria Kamar Olivett, involves the study of the bacteria in rabies, tuberculosis, and the germ theory. This is very relevant to the current events of the most recent pandemic, COVID-19.

"Francie Fitzgerald" witnesses the placing of the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor, a Met's baseball game at the Polo Grounds, and discovers that her grandfather participated in the Battle of Gettysburg in the Civil War. This story makes the readers aware of how lives touch one another.

This book can be found at Anderson Bookshop in Naperville, IL, Amazon, and E-books.