In Mrs. Gallagher’s class, the students are reading “The Great Molasses Flood” by Deborah Kops. The book is about the great molasses flood in Boston’s North End in 1919.

A big tank of molasses that was 50 feet high and 90 feet wide spilled and, almost like a tidal wave, it flooded the whole North End.

Molasses is sticky and thicker than syrup, which would make it hard to swim through. So far in what we read, there was 50 people hurt and 11 people killed. Most people drowned in the flood because the liquid was so heavy, people would swim very slow, so they couldn’t get to the top in time. I bet the great molasses flood was the weirdest case that ever happened in boston.

Today, we got to touch and taste molasses. Most people said it tasted like rotten honey. I agreed with them, but molasses is used for cooking, so many people eat molasses without even knowing it.

Imagine swimming in molasses, you’d definitely have a lot of trouble.

–Jan. 12, 2015–