Miraculous
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- $8.99
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
A traveling medicine show promises to cure all, but two kids learn it takes more than faith in the miraculous to fix things that are broken.
Thirteen-year-old Jack knows what cured his baby sister when his family thought she might never get well—Dr. Kingsbury’s “Miraculous Tonic.” Guaranteed to relieve maladies known to man or beast, Dr. Kingsbury’s potion can cure everything from pimples to hearing loss to a broken heart, and Jack himself is a witness to the miraculous results and the doctor’s kindness. When he had no money, the doctor didn’t turn him away but gave him the tonic for free along with a job—to travel with him from city to city selling his cure-all elixir.
When Dr. Kingsbury and Jack arrive in Oakdale, the town at first feels like any other they’ve been to. But it’s clear Oakdale is a town with secrets, and its citizens are slow to trust strangers.
Then Jack meets Cora, and a friendship neither expected starts to bloom. Together they uncover something else they didn’t expect—not only secrets about the town but also Dr. Kingsbury. As they race to discover the truth, they’ll have to decide who and what to believe before it’s too late.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A small-town mystery unfolds with creeping dread in Rose's (Jasper and the Riddle of Riley's Mine) historical thriller. After months on the road, 13-year-old Jack, apprenticed to the traveling tonic salesman whose wares healed his infant sister, arrives in Oakdale, Ohio, a town that's garnered a reputation of hostility toward outsiders since a fire burned a local barn 50 years ago (a formative event told in flashbacks throughout). Friendless when fellow assistant Isaac, 16, abruptly quits just as they arrive in Oakdale, Jack must suffer his employer's anger, or convince the townsfolk that Dr. Kingsbury's Miraculous Tonic will cure them of any possible affliction. Despite initial skepticism, Oakdale citizens soon begin to clamor for the curing tonic; meanwhile, Jack finds himself questioning the doctor's motives when the details of Isaac's disappearance don't add up. With the help of newfound allies, Jack begins to uncover fragments of the doctor's history and the town's fire in a chilling adventure that serves as a cautionary tale against insular life. Most characters read as white; an author's note contextualizes the story's beginnings and the choice to use historical language when referencing Black characters. Ages 10–up.
