Selling Hope

Selling Hope is an inventive middle grade novel about a girl who wants a normal life and how she sees Halley's Comet as her ticket out of the vaudeville circuit.

It's May 1910, and Halley's Comet is due to pass thru the Earth's atmosphere. And thirteen-year-old Hope McDaniels and her father are due to pass through their hometown of Chicago with their ragtag vaudeville troupe.

Hope wants out of vaudeville, and longs for a normal life -- or as normal as life can be without her mother, who died five years before. Hope sees an opportunity: She invents anti-comet pills to sell to the working-class customers desperate for protection. Soon, she's joined by a fellow troupe member, young Buster Keaton, and the two of them start to make good money. And just when Hope thinks she has all the answers, she has to decide: What is family? Where is home?

"[An] oft-engaging, pleasantly romantic romp through a fascinating time in America's entertainment history." --Kirkus Reviews

Binding Type: Hardcover
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Published: 11/09/2010
ISBN: 9780312611224
Pages: 224
Weight: 0.90lbs
Size: 8.60h x 5.80w x 1.00d

Review Citations: Kirkus Reviews 10/01/2010
Booklist 11/15/2010 pg. 37
Bulletin of Ctr for Child Bks 12/01/2010
School Library Journal 12/01/2010 pg. 129
Hornbook Guide to Children 01/01/2011 pg. 85

Accelerated Reader Quiz #/Name: 141058 / Selling Hope
Reading Level: 5.3 / Interest Level: Middle Grade / Point Value: 8