novel about a sickness that wipes out a lot of the population (except prepubescent children?)

I read the book about 7'ish years ago. It follows a small group of kids working together to survive.
The sickness was sort of like a bad fever? Some adults lived because they went in to hiding from the disease. The kids find the adults and their new civilization in an old shopping mall.
I know this is a bad summary but I haven't read the book since I was 14. All I know is I enjoyed it at the time and I want to read it again.

Bonk Bonk on the Head! Bonk, Bonk!

>2 jlabeatnik: Yes, but the adults were all dead.

SamieK, if no one answers here try LibraryThing's Name that Book group. They specialize in questions like yours.

If you do, follow the directions at the top and check back here in case somebody comes by who knows the answer.

Good luck,

Robert

Try: The Tribe: A New World by A.J. Penn and Power and Chaos by Paula Boock.

The stories start six to nine months after all the adults have been killed by an unknown Virus. The story is about the survival of the children and teenagers who are left on their own in and around an unnamed City. The world has become a primitive hell of anarchy, confusion, danger and fear. With no adults to guide, rule or protect them, the children of the world are on their own and need to build a New World they can live in.

Based on a New Zealand/British TV show from 1999-2003 which focuses on the Tribe of the Mall Rats. Its members are confronted with problems of technology (how to get clean water and some form of power) and problems of morality. The children deal with teenage issues (loves, fears, betrayals, ambitions, friendships) as well as bigger issues that threaten peace in their New World (finding an antidote to the Virus, bringing peace to the City, defeating the Locos, Chosen and Technos).

This sounds like what you may be looking for ?

>3 stellarexplorer: I thought perhaps the episode simply didn't show the ones in hiding.

No, that was the premise: a long drawn out childhood, with symptoms breaking out in adolescence, followed by death. The coming-of-age story wrapped around illness and death gave the story much of its poignancy.

Sounds like The Subtle Knife but the story is not about these children. (The protagonists are Lyra and Will.)

The Kindling by Jennifer Armstrong perhaps?