Summary Of Deadly By Julie Chibbaro

Discovering Herself

Deadly by Julie Chibbaro is about a young girl named Prudence, that follows her ambition to become a scientist, in New York, 1906. Prudence desires to become a scientist to stop the many illness and deaths she has seen. She gets a job as an assistant to a scientist and works to track down the Typhoid disease. It was being spread by a healthy carrier, Mary, who is too stubborn to believe she is spreading the disease. This job takes Prudence through many journeys like her first love and a terrifying court trial. It enlightens her and gives a purpose to her life. In the beginning of the book, she feels lost and alone, but this job helps her find where she belongs. Prudence has transformed from beginning to end and becomes

She starts out upset because this is the month her brother died a couple years ago. On the first page she states,”Today there are great holes in me. I feel like a secret observer, separate from everything that goes on around me.” Prudence keeps her feelings of emptiness to herself instead of sharing them or looking for someone to support her. She keeps those thoughts to herself because her difference separates her from others. That is why Prudence's teacher, Ms.Rubin, was picking on her for the way she looked, “I sat by the window daydreaming; her attention woke me like a splash of cold water… I felt my heart turn to stone.”(42). Prudence is too shy to stick up for herself so she sits there, not saying a word, as Ms.Ruben insults her. She spends her days fantasizing in this useless school, so she is not learning to enrich her brain. She wants to escape this life, but she can’t find a way out. Prudence has been silent and alone for for her whole life because there is no opportunity to do what she really

Mr.Soper, the scientists she is working for, gives Prudence a meaningful job that she loves. Prudence finds a purpose in life and claims that, “Every moment of the day my thoughts absorbed by puzzles he presents me. It’s the type of work I needed,”(73). Prudence is finally thinking hard and being challenged. She is gaining new life experience as she grows as a person. This job alters her because of the many new things that are happening. In Prudence’s words, “My life is changing before my very eyes. Less than a year ago, I was sitting next to my best friend at school, trading noted with her about the silly lessons we were learning.”(203). Prudence has changed now that she is working hard. She is growing so quickly so everything feels so fast to her. Prudence started out quiet and contained but everything is becoming different after she accepted this