Thirteen-year-old Natalie Minks loves machines, particularly
automata--self-operating mechanical devices, usually powered by
clockwork. When Jake Limberleg and his traveling medicine show arrive in
her small Missouri town with a mysterious vehicle under a tarp and an
uncanny ability to make Natalie's half-built automaton move, she feels
in her gut that something about this caravan of healers is a bit off.
Her uneasiness leads her to investigate the intricate maze of the
medicine show, where she discovers a horrible truth and realizes that
only she has the power to set things right.
Set in 1914, The Boneshaker is a gripping, richly textured novel about
family, community, courage, and looking evil directly in the face in
order to conquer it.