"Code Orange" by Caroline Cooney

I liked Caroline Cooney's earlier works, then felt she "sold out" a tad with "Emergency Room," "Flight 116 is Down," etc. "Goddess of Yesterday" was a welcome return to the Cooney I enjoy. "Code Orange" falls somewhere between the two extremes. Realistic and engaging characters draw you in (much more than the icky cover). Ms. Cooney either knows a lot of teens or she remembers her youth very well. She is also somewhat unapologetic in creating her characters, making Mitty Blake, the lead character in this novel, a genuinely disengaged rich kid who you may have to take a while to warm up to. Mitty's internal monologue of the pointlessness of school is accurate to a fault, not to mention a little humorous. The New York city setting is also a good fit with details evoking strong memories of time I have spent there. Where the novel went off the rails for me, a bit, was an improbable and convoluted plot involving a biology paper, memories of 9/11 and smallpox scabs. While the disease aspect does bring a certain page-turning aspect to the story, the overall level of drama eventually rises, as it must, to a somewhat silly level. It's not that it was screamingly bad, just a poor mix of the actual fear felt during the terrorists attacks mixed with quickly aging scientific and technical data in the book. I was left feeling angst over the dredged-up memories of actual history combined with the knowledge that this novel, written in 2005, lacked the perspective I now have on the events mentioned. This will not be a problem for the students being asked to read it -- they will not remember 9/11, the Anthrax attacks or the general mood of the country in those years. For me, it will never go away. Not sure I'm ready for the fictionalized version, particularly when the voices ring so much like the kids I know. Hopefully, Ms. Cooney will continue writing character-driven books, and not return to these "crisis of the times" novels.