The Boneshaker by Kate Milford

Milford, Kate The Boneshaker, 372 p. Clarion (Houghton), 2010.  $17.00.  Violence: PG (plenty of danger, and references to the devil) .  Something is wrong at the crossroads outside of Natalie Minks’ little town – if you drive through in a wheeled conveyance, you will undoubtedly lose a wheel – and always the front left.  And then there is Old Tom, a negro man, who has a way with a guitar and an old story that circulates about him and a supposed encounter he had one night with the devil at the old crossroads.  Then a traveling medicine show comes to town – they’ve lost their front left wheel and will need to stay in town until Natalie’s father can fix it or replace it.  But Natalie feels to her bones that there is something very wrong with the whole show, its menacing leader an the very peculiar people (or things?) which populate it.  She will risk her life, or maybe her soul, in order to solve the mystery and save her town. Natalie and her friends are very engaging, the mysteries and the danger are palpable, but I’m curious to see how such an old-fashioned book will actually do with today’s audiences.  EL – OPTIONAL. Cindy, Library Teacher.