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The Boneshaker |  | Author: Kate Milford
Creator: Andrea Offermann
Publisher: Clarion Books
Category: Book
List Price: $17.00
Buy New: $7.95
as of 9/10/2010 18:05 CDT details
You Save: $9.05 (53%)
New (25) Used (9) from $6.17
Seller: psychogranny2000
Rating:  28 reviews
Sales Rank: 19115
Media: Hardcover
Reading Level: All Ages
Pages: 384
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 6.6 x 1.2
ISBN: 0547241879
EAN: 9780547241876
ASIN: 0547241879
Publication Date: May 24, 2010
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
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.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 28
 Good, but not great September 3, 2010
jebi44 (Dallas, TX United States)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I hate giving 3 star ratings. Books you love or hate are so much easier to review (probably why 3 star ratings attract so many "not helpful" reviews).
I wanted (and expected) to love this book. The book is quirky and unique...but it just never quite worked for me. It was too slow in parts, and then in other parts there is so much going on that I found myself having to reread sections to figure out who was doing what... (Not a good sign when an adult has trouble keeping up with a plot supposedly aimed at 10 year-olds.) Additionally, I found many of the characters to be a bit dull (with a few exceptions, such as Old Tom). I did like the steampunk-style setting, but that wasn't enough to keep me interested.
Bottom line, it's not a bad book. It just wasn't the captivating read that I was expecting.
Would Make a Great Movie August 18, 2010
Janet Boyer (Pennsylvania)
"Natalie dropped the cloth and stumbled back so fast she tripped and sprawled and had to pick herself off the ground in order to put some distance between herself and the man with the spiky gray hair. He strode at her like aan angry bull, head lowered and shoulders hunched...and with a claw hammer in one hand. Natalie scrambled back until she felt one of the other wagons come up against her back, and prepared to scream." -- From The Boneshaker
I finished reading this book months ago, and have mixed feelings about it. On one hand, it has a solid premise with interesting characters (the ol' "make the devil a deal" at the crossroads stand-by plot). I enjoyed the descriptions of the odd characters (and the names), and was drawn in by the mystery of "what makes those automatons work?", especially the Fortuneteller.
The central character, Natalie, isn't terribly likable, though. She's rather bland, in fact. Sure, "average" kids doing "remarkable" things is the crux of good kid books, but still...she's flat (as is her family, even her extraordinary mother).
The author is too wordy, in my opinion, executing her prose with a lot of telling instead of showing. The steampunk-esque descriptions of mechanical objects weighs down what could be crackling prose in a differen't author's hands (e.g. Suzanne Collins). When the action starts to speed up 3/4 through, I couldn't help but think that, in the right hands, The Boneshaker could make a GREAT movie (especially the stained-glass-window vehicle and the part where the automaton doll is chasing Natalie on the highwire).
But there's just something a bit dull about this book, despite the description of "excitement". When I got to the end, I couldn't help but think the "surprise reveal" would have made for a better starting point to the story...that we should know, ahead of time, who Dr. Limberleg really is (and why he does what he does). THAT would have made for a provocative story, especially the description of the old photographs...
Although The Boneshaker is marketed for children ages 10 and up, I feel this is more of a YA title. There is quite a bit of cursing, and a whole lot of smoking. Ugh. I wouldn't let *my* 11 year old read this.
Despite the cool cover, nice illustrations and midly interesting premise, I feel that the book wasn't nearly as good as it could have been.
-- Janet Boyer, author of Back in Time Tarot
Good book, but wondering about the audience August 17, 2010
J. Prather (IN USA)
The Boneshaker was a wild surprise. To me, it was eerily reminiscent of Ray Bradbury's "Something Wicked This Way Comes". It seemed to take a dab here and a dab there from some classic American stories of evil and the devil, and mash them all up into what was a good story, but one that left me wondering what age group it was written for. Most reviews say grades 5-8, but I think you would be hard pressed to find a 10 year old with the reading skills to master this author's sophisticated plot strands (and there are a lot of them), and keep track of the many characters introduced here. I would say a better age recommendation would be grades 8 and up!
13 year old Natalie is the heroine of this story and she is pretty much the stereotypical tomboy girl with "pluck". Her family and friends are not given much dimension, but that's okay since the stars of this show are the evil characters and all the machines. The author gives a big nod to the steampunk genre in her inclusion of all the detailed descriptions of the many automatons, generators and bicycles. It's not really steampunk though, more historical with a dash of fantasy. The story is imbued with a constant feeling of dread and darkness so similiar to Bradbury's that I know if you liked that story you will like this one as well.
I'm not sure what kind of reader to recommend this to. Fans of steampunk or fantasy will find much to like, but might be turned off by the younger characters. I liked Natalie but am not sure if I totally believed her. I felt that the author was spot on with her tone, her folklore-like plotting, and of course all those cool machines. Even with all that, this one just didn't wow me.
 Would not recommend. August 4, 2010
Gloria J. Ellis (Portland, OR)
1 out of 5 found this review helpful
Recently I decided to try reading some children's books as I may be doing some teaching of young children. This one sounded interesting so I got it from the library. Although some of it is written well, I would not recommend it, especially to children younger than 12. From the very beginning it created a darkness that never left me throughout the book. It just seemed way to dark and not redeeming enough for me to recommend to any child. It is still kind of haunting me.
 Excellent story- Highly recommended August 2, 2010
slloyd11
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
There are some books that make you want to be a writer, that make you wish that you could tell such a beautiful, gripping tale. These are the kind of books that give you chills and make your heart stop a little when they end.
The Boneshaker is just this sort of story. Ms. Milford has done an extraordinary job of crafting a cast of characters that you want to spend more time getting to know.
The adventure begins as the heroine, young Natalie Minks, is dealing with the politics of groups of young children and struggling with her fear that her secret will be discovered- she isn't able to ride the beautiful Chesterlane she and her father built, the one that she is certain is the fastest bike in the world. As The Boneshaker unfolds, we see Natalie's world change and her struggles with the bike are soon overshadowed by an evil that has taken hold of the town -- one that no one else in town seems to notice. Natalie must uncover the truth behind the panacea brought to town by a traveling medicine show and face evil on her own if she is to save the town from a horrible fate.
The rumblings of a Newbery seem to be gaining strength, and with good reason. Milford is a gifted storyteller, and she carries the reader out of their home and into a world of gears and gadgets, mystery and folklore. The illustrations by Andrea Offerman, exquisite drawings of the creepy carnival and paranormal paragons, perfectly complement the detailed scenes and characters crafted by Ms. Milford. The Boneshaker is a story that will keep readers young and old at the edge of their seats through the last pages of the book, and will prompt them to wonder when the next installment will transport them back to spend more time with the inhabitants of Arcane, Missouri. I highly recommend this book to anyone with a thirst for adventure, to children and adults who want to travel to a world rich in detail, thick with curious characters and mysterious happenings.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 28
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