Product Description

Josephine’s parents can charge people a penny to gawk at her. Why? Josephine is 12 years old and only 28 inches tall. For a better price, her parents sell her to the MacLaren Academy for Girls, where Josephine is a virtual slave. One day Josephine runs away, but she doesn’t get far. She is “discovered” by R.J. Walters and becomes a “Natural Curiosity” in his sideshow on Coney Island. In 1884, there’s no better place to see the weird and the wonderful than Coney Island, New York. Josephine has a new name – Little JoJo of Bohemia – and new friends, but something is still missing in her life, something she discovers almost too late.


From the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3832104 in Books
• Published on: 2003-02-04
• Released on: 2003-02-04
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Jocelyn (The Invisible Day) ventures into historical fiction for this often vivid but incompletely realized novel set in 1884 New York City. Twelve-year-old Josephine measures only 28U" tall, but she has outsize adventures. For the past five years, she has slaved away at Miss McLaren's academy for girls, an establishment that recalls Miss Minchin's from A Little Princess for its cruelty and hypocrisy. Exploited past endurance, Josephine runs away. Immediately she meets one R.J. Walters, the owner of The Museum of Earthly Astonishments, which displays "curiosities," human and otherwise. Billed as Little Jo-Jo, the world's smallest girl, Josephine becomes a star attraction among the Coney Island amusement-seekers, and she also becomes friends with another of Mr. Walters's "astonishments," a 14-year-old albino boy. But evil Miss McLaren is not so easily left behind, and the plot becomes a tangle of melodramatic sequences in which Miss McLaren attempts at all costs to get Josephine back in her clutches. The characters are colorful but one-dimensional; Josephine, for example, seems less an individual than a contemporary heroine assigned a period setting and a midget's body, and even her extraordinary stature is not entirely reflected in her perceptions and personality. The abundance of historical details demonstrates that the author has researched her subject, yet the characters themselves do not seem lifelike. Ages 8-12. (Mar.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
Grade 4-8-Josephine's parents have always been slightly afraid of their daughter. By age seven, she measures all of 22 inches, so they jump at the opportunity when a shrewd headmistress from a New York City boarding school offers to take her in for hire. After five long years of abuse, the intelligent, hardworking girl runs away. After a perilous journey downtown, she is taken under the wing of a kindly barmaid, Nell, and Mr. R. J. Walters, the owner of the Museum of Earthly Astonishments-a glorified freak show. She moves into a squalid apartment with Nell and her albino son Charley, a "ghostly phenomenon." Under Mr. Walters's tutelage, Josephine is reborn as Little Jo-Jo, a refined lady of mysterious origins and creates a sensation in the press. The troupe moves to Coney Island for the summer, where she enjoys even greater success and a sense of belonging. Unfortunately, her notoriety prompts her former employer to attempt to retrieve her "property." After a big to-do, Josephine escapes the headmistress's grasp and realizes that she is ready to make her own fortune with Nell and Charley by her side. The protagonist is a compelling and sympathetic character with whom children will identify. The occasional use of letters, newspaper articles, and a billboard ad creates a feel for New York in the 1880s. However, the real story here is that while family isn't always found where it should be, it's okay to make one's own.
Carrie Schadle, Beginning with Children School, New York City
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews
A small but plucky and resourceful heroine stars in this novel, set in the era of P.T. Barnum and his extraordinary exhibits, from Jocelyn (Hannah and the Seven Dresses, p. 884, etc.). Josephine, only 22 inches high, is sold by her own parents to a young ladies boarding school, with a headmistress who makes Sara Crewe's Miss Minchin appear angelic. The place is a horror, for Miss MacLaren uses the tuition money to line her own pockets, spending little on her students and less on the house and help. Josephine escapes to the city, to become part of the Museum of Earthly Astonishments along with Charley, an albino boy, and his mother, the kindly Nelly. Josephine learns her part and plays it well, a living doll dressed in historical costumes; Charley and Nelly become her family. But Miss MacLaren tracks her down, of course, a development that leads to more daring escapes, vivid newspaper stories, and touching friendships. Set in and around Coney Island and the Lower East Side of New York City in the 19th century, the novel is full of historical color while focusing on a tiny person whose courage and inner fortitude are very large, indeed. (Fiction. 8-12) -- Copyright ©2000, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Customer Reviews

Earthly Delight
My daughter and I read this book together and loved it. Kids can really identify with Josephine, the heroine, because she is so small. This book is beautifully written and a truly literate delight. We loved the idea that people who are "different" can take control of their lives, and lead fulfilling ones. The author obviously did a great deal of research for this book and it shows. Since we live in New York City, we loved reading about Coney Island and what it was like in the late 1800s. My daughter and I recommend this book highly to everyone.