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Selling Hope

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Selling Hope
by Kristin O'Donnell Tubb
juvenile historical fiction
215 pages
New York : Feiwel and Friends, 2010

Thirteen-year-old Hope is the assistant in her father's small-time Vaudeville magic act. During May of 1910, the troupe is performing in Hope's hometown of Chicago. The headlines are filled with speculation about the impending pass of Halley's comet. As part of a grand scheme to get her father fired and return to her normal life in Chicago, Hope creates "Anti-Comet Pills". With the help of fellow vaudeville act, Buster Keaton, she gains a desperate yet faithful following. Preying upon the fears of the public doesn't seem to bother her, at first. The complex characters and relationships make for a fabulous historical fiction novel.
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