Streams of Babel by Carol Plum-Ucci

Streams of Babel by Carol Plum-Ucci is about a terrorist attach on a small town in New Jersey, set just after the attacks on 9/11. The terrorists poison the water supply with an unknown germ of just five neighborhood streets in Trinity Falls, NJ, causing two women to die and four teens to become extremely ill. The story is told through different voices, including those of each of the teens, a teenager from Pakistan who is working as an Internet spy for the United States government, and a teen from New York who is trying to solve the bioterrorism mystery on his own. All of the characters intertwine by the end of the novel as each tells his or her own part of the story.

This book was amazing. I had a hard time classifying it into a genre - is it historical fiction, science fiction, action? I could make a case for all three! Each of the characters is dealing with his or her own struggles on top of the emerging terrorism within their community. I was able to relate to and connect with several of the characters, from Scott, the EMT who is on the scene when his neighbor's mother becomes the first victim, to Cora, a loner who just lost her mother to a mystery virus, to Rain, the daughter of the government official who is in charge of finding the virus, the terrorists, and the cure, to Shazhad, the 16 year-old prodigy who can hack any computer he is given. I highly recommend this book!