Thirteen year-old Natalie Minks loves machines, particularly automata — self operating mechanical devices, usually powered by clockwork. When Jake Limberleg and his travelling medicine showarrive 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 discoversa horrible truth, and realizes that only shehas the power toset things right.

Set in 1914,The Boneshakeris a gripping, richly texturednovel about family, community, courage, and looking evil directly in the face in order to conquer it.