On a hot September day in 1924, Jesus Lajun noticed a terrible smell coming from his house in Los Angeles. He went down to his basement and discovered a dead rat, which he picked up and tossed in the trash. A few days later, Lajun came down with a fever and noticed a strange, purple lump on his thigh. Soon Lajun was dead, as was his daughter, several of his neighbors, his ambulance driver, and even the priest who had performed his funeral. All of them died from the same illness! What killed Jesus Lajun and quickly spread with disturbing ease to the people around him? A doctor studying the case soon discovered that it was plague, a deadly disease that's spread by fleas and rodents—including rats. In Bubonic Plague: The Black Death!, children will learn all about the three forms this disease takes in the human body—bubonic, pneumonic, and septicemic—including how the disease spreads, the worst outbreaks in history, and how doctors have developed effective medicines to combat the illness. Most important, children learn how to avoid catching bubonic plague in the first place!