Selling Hope

Selling Hope by Tubb, Kristin O'Donnell. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9780312611224.

Selling Hope is an inventive middle grade novel about a girl who wants a normal life and how she sees Halleys Comet as her ticket out of the vaudeville circuit. Its May 1910, and Halleys Comet is due to pass thru the Earths 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, shes 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 Americas entertainment history.” ―Kirkus Reviews