Books about the Great Plague/Black Death?

Question

Well, I'm really really into history, and I found out about something called the Great Plague in like 5th grade. But we didn't study it much, but now I really really want too.

Anyone know a really good, non fiction, book about it?

Answer 1

Oh, yes!  

The Black Death, by Philip Ziegler

The Great Mortality, by John Kelly

But start with When Plague Strikes, by James Cross Giblin.  The first section is on the black death, and the book is aimed at ages 10 to adult, so it makes a good introduction.

Answer 2

1. The Decameron (Abridged)

by Giovanni Boccaccio, Peter E. Bondanella (Editor), and Mark Musa (Editor). W.W. Norton and Company. Norton's critical edition offers 21 of the 100 tales from Boccaccio's "Decameron." Also find critical interpretations from Ugo Foscolo, Francesco De Sanctis, Erich Auerbach, Aldo D. Scaglione, Wayne Booth, Tzvetan Todorov, Robert J. Clements, and Marga Cottino-Jones.

2. Journal of the Plague Year

by Daniel Defoe and Paula Backsheider (Editor). W.W. Norton and Company. From the publisher: "The shocking immediacy of Daniel Defoe's description of a plague-racked city makes it one of the most convincing accounts of the Great Plague of 1665 ever written." The book is both fictional and historical in nature

3. Plague

by Albert Camus, Erroll McDonald (Editor), and Stuart Gilbert (Translator). Random House. From the publisher: "A haunting tale of human resilience in the face of unrelieved horror, Camus' novel about a bubonic plague ravaging the people of a North African coastal town is a classic."