The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Vol. 1: The Pox Party

The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Vol. 1: The Pox Party is a young adult historical novel by M. T. Anderson set in Boston in the years before the American Revolution. Octavian is a boy of African royal descent who is raised by a group of philosophers in a grand house, where he receives a remarkable education in music, Latin and Greek while every detail of his life is closely observed. As he grows older, he begins to understand that he is not simply a pupil but the subject of an experiment designed to measure the abilities of Africans. When new sponsors take charge of the household, the experiment takes a darker turn, and a party held during a smallpox outbreak sets terrible events in motion. Told largely through Octavian's own journals and letters, the novel examines liberty, slavery and hypocrisy in the American founding. It won the 2006 National Book Award for Young People's Literature and received a 2007 Printz Honor.