Wonder Show

Feb 15, 2013 Gabrielle Carolina rated it 3 of 5 stars

Oh man, I'm waffling pretty hard between a 2.5 and 3 star rating for this one.

It's a very hard book to rate, because though I loved the writing, the premise and many of the characters, the odd, odd choices the well-written Barnaby used to narrate her story were just terrible in my opinion.

It read like a first draft when you're still testing out how you want to write your book; do you want to write the book from a third person omnipresent and look into the twisted minds of the very measured ch...more

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Apr 03, 2012 ☆Jessie☆ (Ageless Pages Reviews) rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical-fiction, coverlove, netgalley-arc, arc, pre-review, 2012-reviews, 2012-reads, reviewed, read-need-to-buy

Read This Review & More Like It On My Blog!

I knew pretty early on that I was really going to enjoy this fairly short novel - and I was repeatedly proven right while reading this charming debut. Though Hannah Barnaby and therefore Portia's tale is a bit short on action and long on character (like another recently released circus themed novel...), I was hooked from chapter one and Portia herself. I felt that the final conflict lacked a bit of emotional pull or immediacy but nearly everything e...more Read This Review & More Like It On My Blog!

I knew pretty early on that I was really going to enjoy this fairly short novel - and I was repeatedly proven right while reading this charming debut. Though Hannah Barnaby and therefore Portia's tale is a bit short on action and long on character (like another recently released circus themed novel...), I was hooked from chapter one and Portia herself. I felt that the final conflict lacked a bit of emotional pull or immediacy but nearly everything else from this look into Mosco's Traveling Wonder Show was pure fun to read. I'm happy to say that Hannah Barnaby emerges from her first novel as a solid and compelling storyteller with a flair for the dramatic and the unique - just like her indomitable lead.

Portia is a flawed but very likeable protagonist; though her story is mostly told in third-person omniscient and occasionally oddly features other first-person perspective important characters, Portia is the strongest, most developed character of the lot. While I truly disliked the shifts between first and third perspectives it's easy to fall into any narrative in the story, be it P's or the Jackal, or Gideon or even Mosco. Portia made me laugh, but mostly and most importantly, Portia made me care about her story; made me invest in her happiness and actively cheer for her success and lament over her losses. Her inquisitive nature and love of words ("Stories came easily to Portia. Lies came even more easily and more often." - p. 13 ARC) endeared her to me rather quickly and her adventures with Aunt Sophie and subsequent misadventures at the McGreavey Home for Wayward Girls only impressed me with her spirit and liveliness.

While the 'freaks' advertised for the Gallery of Human Oddities didn't quite live up to the hype of the synopsis and blurb, I am not disappointed; rather instead, I believe that is the whole point of Wonder Show - that those who society considers freaks are really just people like us, living the hand they are dealt. In fact, the only truly freakish character within the entirety of Wonder Show is the antagonist of the piece, ominously referred to only as "The Mister" - someone not hidden away and hated on principle but someone trusted with power and the futures of young girls. The other characters, thoguh they don't compel like Portia or creep you out like Mister, each have believable and distinct voices. Like Portia, the population of the Wonder Show is at large on the run from something/time/one they'd like to forget, or change. While no two characters plot was the same outside of Portia I found the Jackal and the deteriorating Marvel family to be the most accessible. In fact, while I was far from a fan of the weirdly switching POV's used to alternate character inner monologues (not person to person but 3rd omniscient to 1st), I wouldn't have hated an even longer look into those characters.

Though I was expecting to be more involved and invested in the ending, I felt it was solid but very much not the climactic, epic tête-à-tête I had been ~~craving because Mister needed his ass kicked~~ anticipating. And I have to admit that though this is a middle-grade novel, it doesn't read like one and I feel that people of all ages would enjoy the adventures and marvels that make Wonder Show so fun to read in the first place. This is a quick read with a large reward for your minimal efforts; full of charm and adventures, Wonder Show is welll... quite wonderful indeed..(less)

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Mar 29, 2012 the golden witch. rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: net-galley, 2012, arc-galley, circuses-fuck-yeah, get-off-my-lawn-you-damn-kids, ebook, teenage-shennanigans, history, reviewed

This one was really charming, guys. I think a lot of MG female readers are going to relate to Portia's character (especially if they've gone through/are going through what she's gone through), and a lot of the other characters constructed in this wonderful world of the past. Though we're not solidly set in one year, it seems like we're set somewhere between 1935-1941 for the duration of the novel. This is a marvelous world of circus/carney folk (which I LOVE), whose hayday was dying out around t...more This one was really charming, guys. I think a lot of MG female readers are going to relate to Portia's character (especially if they've gone through/are going through what she's gone through), and a lot of the other characters constructed in this wonderful world of the past. Though we're not solidly set in one year, it seems like we're set somewhere between 1935-1941 for the duration of the novel. This is a marvelous world of circus/carney folk (which I LOVE), whose hayday was dying out around this time right before WWII. "Wonder Show" does indeed inspire wonder and insight into this dying art of the ballyhoo and the position of one girl within it, who's also looking for her own place in the world as a whole.

If you've been reading the blog for a bit, you guys know I love anything with circuses. It doesn't matter what kind of circus, or when it's set. So for placing a coming-of-age story within a circus, Barnaby automatically gets a nod for being awesome. We actually have two main arcs within this book - that of Portia's journey to find herself/be found by her father and that of the world of the circus/freakshow, which at this point was dying in the US a slow and sad death. Barnaby doesn't go into too deep a history of the circus industry, but she does talk about past famous acts and acts that always attracted the "rubes" (or rubbernecking normal folk), as well as how the industry for a traveling circus with a freakshow worked in terms of territory. Those parts made for some of the most fascinating reading of the whole book as I'm interested in all of that quite a bit.

And Portia's journey is a satisfying one - Barnaby really emphasizes Portia's question of "Who am I?" from the first page on, and every page where Portia is, continues to emphasize it through little hints scattered throughout the text like so many breadcrumbs. There are so many answers and extensions of this question - "Who am I without my gypsy family but with only my father?", "Who am I without my father?", "Who am I at Mister's House?", "Who am I with Mosco's Circus?" and so forth. At each stage of the book, according to her location, she finds an answer, but it's not enough. Her persistance in her search to become someone other than the girl she used to be was really quite a wonderful read.

The rest of the characters in the novel - even from the least mentioned to the most mentioned are almost as rounded out as Portia is, and overall were given a very real feeling to them. Barnaby manages to do this best, however, once Portia enters the Wonder Show and starts traveling with them. She manages to do it in so few words, which impressed me. And she also gave chapters to extend history to the freaks - which were small but made them feel very tangible as real people. And the matter of Caroline, well...she continues to haunt the story throughout, making Portia ask herself darker questions that I won't spoil here.

So all in all? I really enjoyed this one, guys, and recommend it to late MG/young YA readers, as I think they'll really get the most out of it in terms of the whole coming-of-age theme, but really, any reader at any age will be charmed by Barnaby's wonderous "Wonder Show". "Wonder Show" is out now in North America, so be sure to check it out! It's a really fun read.

(posted to goodreads, shelfari, and birthofanewwitch.wordpress.com)(less)

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Feb 16, 2013 Andria rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: teen-fiction

Young Portia runs away from the sinister Home For Wayward Girls and joins up with a traveling circus sideshow, her talent for storytelling earning her a place alongside the carnies, barkers, and assorted Human Oddities as she searches for her family and place in the world. A coming of age story with evil villains, sideshow "freaks," a plucky young heroine and lovely, lyrical writing...WHAT'S NOT TO LOVE?

This is billed as a middle-grade novel, but I would recommend it to certain older teens and a...more

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Sep 07, 2012 Elizabeth rated it 4 of 5 stars

Portia Remini is essentially an orphan. Her father ran off to follow a circus and her mother abandoned her long ago. Her distant, disapproving aunt eventually foists her off into a home for "wayward girls" run by a man known as Mister. He treats the girls as slave labor while looking like he's saving them. After a tragic accident and randomly finding the schedule card for it, Portia escapes on a stolen red bicycle to Mosco's Travelling Wonder Show, where she may find her father or be found by Mi...more Portia Remini is essentially an orphan. Her father ran off to follow a circus and her mother abandoned her long ago. Her distant, disapproving aunt eventually foists her off into a home for "wayward girls" run by a man known as Mister. He treats the girls as slave labor while looking like he's saving them. After a tragic accident and randomly finding the schedule card for it, Portia escapes on a stolen red bicycle to Mosco's Travelling Wonder Show, where she may find her father or be found by Mister, or find something else entirely.

I was immediately drawn in my the cover and the fact that it's about a circus. Wonder Show was a quick, fun read that touched on some deep and universal subjects. The characters were all amazing. It would be easy to demonize the sideshow "freaks" and make them into the monsters the crowd believes them to be. Although they don't mix well with the other circus performers, they were just regular people who want the same things as everyone else. They are neither perfectly good nor perfectly evil, but flawed. These characters were very often sad or angry, which I felt was realistic. Many of them couldn't do anything else because of their physical disabilities, so they were pretty much forced into a circus sideshow to make their living. I liked that the perspective would pass between characters every so often to provide to a glimpse into their mind.

Portia was a wonderful character who loved to tell stories and fairy tales, mixing and matching existing ones to make new ones or making her own entirely. Her imagination and creativity were amazing, but those around her didn't understand it and wanted her to rid herself of them and become a shell of herself. She saw the world through her own lens of fantasy and I enjoyed seeing her world through that lens. She also stood up for herself and had a firecracker of personality.

Wonder Show was hard to classify into one genre. It was a quest story mixed with gothic mystery, coming of age, Depression-era, and self discovery. Its only real flaw was that the ending felt a little rushed and I wanted it to be longer to more fully capture these characters and their relationships. I would definitely look for more releases by Hannah Barnaby.(less)

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Apr 12, 2012 Laurie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Set in the Depression era American Midwest, ‘The Wonder Show’ is a young adult novel of loss, identity, and family. I chose this book on a whim because the cover and the theme made me think of ‘The Night Circus’, a book I loved. It turned out that the two books have almost nothing in common, but I loved ‘The Wonder Show’ on its own merits.

Teenaged Portia Remini, who has a gift for story telling, is left behind by her family, which scatters to try to find work in the Depression. Left with her ve...more Set in the Depression era American Midwest, ‘The Wonder Show’ is a young adult novel of loss, identity, and family. I chose this book on a whim because the cover and the theme made me think of ‘The Night Circus’, a book I loved. It turned out that the two books have almost nothing in common, but I loved ‘The Wonder Show’ on its own merits.

Teenaged Portia Remini, who has a gift for story telling, is left behind by her family, which scatters to try to find work in the Depression. Left with her very unmaternal aunt, she watches every day for her father to return for her. He doesn’t; the aunt decides she can’t deal with her any more; and she is sent to McGreavey’s Home for Wayward Girls. This home, which is supposed to reform the misbehaving girls, turns out to be nothing more than a creepy slave camp. The girls labor for the owner, a bachelor called ‘Mister’- a name that constantly put me in mind of ‘The Color Purple’ and the abuse the women went through in that book. No one has ever escaped this man. But when a tragedy occurs, Portia decides she has to try.

She flees to the traveling circus and carnival, thinking she’ll find her circus loving father that way. In a sideshow, Portia, the ‘normal’ one, has little to offer. She stands out. But she has her gift of telling stories, and that is what the sideshow is really all about.

There is a constant creepy tension in the book, as we wait to see if Portia will find her father or if Mister will find her. She’s a resilient person, but loss after loss befalls her. You can’t help but fear for Portia: Will she break? Will Mister catch up with her? Will she find family?

The author took a chance and wrote the book from several points of view, and in both first and third person. It sounds jolting, but it works seamlessly. Barnaby has avoided the problem that many first time authors have, of having a novel that seems only partly there. The dialogue flows well and the characters have depth. This little book is a gem.
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Apr 09, 2012 Claire rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 10-to-12-year-old-readers, a-7th-and-8th-grade-middle-school-t, adults-reading-ya-lit, book-fairs-spring-2013, award-winner

Possible spoilers follow...

Set in a slower era- don't see or hear of any phones ... The airstream is modern.

Portia lives in the bosom of her Gypsy family. Mom and Dad, aunties, uncles and cousins across the yard with slightly dour Aunt Sophia nearby. Portia revels in the stories that swirl about her and each evening she entertains her father with her reinventions of the tales.

Suddenly the idyll breaks apart- Mom splits, then the cousins all leave, then- this is a low blow- her dad drives off af...more

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Mar 22, 2012 Stephanie D. rated it 4 of 5 stars

The story of a girl on the run in 1939.

Thirteen-year-old Portia Remini has been left behind over and over again, but this time, she's the one who's leaving. She's had enough of The Home, of being called a wayward girl, of Mister's dastardly deeds. And when her only friend suddenly dies and Portia's guilt weighs too much to bear, she decides it's time to run away.

When she meets up with a traveling sideshow, Portia collides with a world she has never known, a world that few people have seen up clo...more The story of a girl on the run in 1939.

Thirteen-year-old Portia Remini has been left behind over and over again, but this time, she's the one who's leaving. She's had enough of The Home, of being called a wayward girl, of Mister's dastardly deeds. And when her only friend suddenly dies and Portia's guilt weighs too much to bear, she decides it's time to run away.

When she meets up with a traveling sideshow, Portia collides with a world she has never known, a world that few people have seen up close, a world that will change Portia forever.

Reading Wonder Show by Hannah Barnaby was like being lured to a sideshow with promises of never before seen oddities, teased until curiosity has reached its limit and only then are you allowed to view what lies beyond the curtain. Wonder Show took its time getting to what the synopsis and cover promised: a girl who runs away and joins the circus. Our heroine, Portia, first gets abandoned by both her parents, then ends up in a bleak Dickensian home for wayward girls. To cope with loneliness and harsh reality, Portia tells herself stories.

"Stories came easily to Portia. Lies came even more easily, and more often. The difference was in the purpose. The stories taught her to imagine places beyond where she was, and the lies kept her out of trouble. Mostly.

...

"She made the stories her own, chopped them up and clapped them back together in new formations, putting the enchanted princess in the loving embrace of a villainous wolf, marrying the charming prince to the wicked witch and giving them a brood of dwarfs to raise as their own."

Portia's love of adventures remains in the realm of imagination until the day she decides to run away from the home of wayward girls and the evil Mister who runs it. Hoping to find her missing father, she temporarily joins Mosco's Traveling Wonder Show. I found myself becoming impatient with the chapters preceding the circus, which were set in the home of wayward girls, and wondered how it fit in with the rest of the story.

Once Portia arrives at the circus, however, the novel came alive for me and I found myself absorbed in the inner workings of a sideshow. According to the author's notes in the back, many of the colorful circus characters were based on real people: conjoined twins, giants, a family of albinos, an armless woman who can throw knives with her feet. The brief chapters, as told from the different points of view of the "human oddities" Portia encountered, were the most appealing of the novel; I wished that there had been more of them with longer entries. Portia's search for her missing father and striving for independence did not absorb me as much as the stories of the circus "freaks" did. I could have actually done away with the whole home for wayward girls interlude and instead jumped straight into the fascinating world of the sideshow.

Rather than a middle grade The Night Circus, I would compare Wonder Show as Water for Elephants for the younger set; it shows the lurid, the wondrous, and the humanity of circus "freaks." (less)

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Mar 22, 2012 Dark Faerie Tales rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: reviewed-by-macie

Review Courtesy of Dark Faerie Tales

Quick & Dirty: A surprising story of a girl trying to find herself while on the run by joining a circus in 1940′s America.

Opening Sentence: Wayward can mean a lot of things. It can mean lost, misled, unfortunate, left behind. That is how the girls at The Home thought of themselves, despite their best efforts to live some other way.

The Review:

Wonder Show is hard to classify as a book with its multiple perspectives and its unusual subject matter, but I thoro...more Review Courtesy of Dark Faerie Tales

Quick & Dirty: A surprising story of a girl trying to find herself while on the run by joining a circus in 1940′s America.

Opening Sentence: Wayward can mean a lot of things. It can mean lost, misled, unfortunate, left behind. That is how the girls at The Home thought of themselves, despite their best efforts to live some other way.

The Review:

Wonder Show is hard to classify as a book with its multiple perspectives and its unusual subject matter, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. Portia is part of a Gypsy family that slowly leaves her and her town, including her father. She is left alone living with her strict aunt who drops her off at the McGreavey Home for Wayward Girls. Portia has to work hard and live a life with no comforts. The girls pick apples during the day, and sleep in a cold shed at night. This portion of the story is very bleak, and it broke my heart to read. There is enough evidence of the unspoken life of work forces of abandoned children that Portia’s story could very well be true.

The first portion of the book is set at Mister’s house where Portia talks her way into doing housework instead of laboring in the orchard. She runs away to find her father, and to get away from the threatening, possibly murderous Mister. Mister is mysterious and we never learn much about him besides the fact that he has been taking in wayward girls for a long time, and knows how to get them back if they escape. Portia joins a travelling circus as a way to escape the house and to look for her dad. The book is divided into individual chapters that are either about what is currently happening, or from the view point of individual characters, or from Portia’s memories. Portia first meets Gideon, a boy not much older than herself, at the circus, and he introduces her to Mosco to see if he will hire her. She was supposed to cook chicken fried steak, but instead cooked the one dish she knew and introduced it with an elaborate story. Because of her storytelling abilities, Portia gets a job working inside the human curiosities tent introducing the people. She shares a trailer with Violet, who’s parents and brother are albinos in the circus, and learns more about those around her as they travel from town to town.

People come and people go in the circus, but there is always something that can be learned from others, whether it be about them or yourself. I really enjoyed the insight into the different type of people that make up a circus show since many of them, especially the human oddities, would rarely be accepted into mainstream society in their time. For the outcasts of society to come together and form their own society where they are accepted was interesting to read. The first person insights into the other characters give them more depth, but it is only a glimpse. It is often said throughout the book that people keep things close to themselves, and rarely divulge secrets or personal histories. The only time we find out more about the characters is during their individual chapters.

Even though this takes place in America, Wonder Show sometimes reads like a fantasy novel. The alternating narrators and point of view reminds me of modernist stream of consciousness novels. There is very much a dreamlike quality to Wonder Show as Portia continues her life while trying to find her father, and who she is as well. This is a novel about growing up, the search for self identity, and learning to accept others for who they really are. I would recommend this for anyone who is looking for a different, darker, but thoughtful read.

FTC Advisory: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt provided me with a copy of Wonder Show. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review.(less)

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Mar 14, 2012 Wandering Librarians rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: family, fiction, friendship, middle-grade, historical-fiction

After the terrible death of her friend Caroline, Portia runs away from Mister and the McGreavey's Home for Wayward Girls and ends up in a traveling circus. Portia works in the sideshow, where she gets to know all the strange "freaks" that work there. Secretly, Portia hopes that she'll find her father, or better yet, that he'll find her. But Portia has more pressing problems to worry about, and Mister never lets anyone get away for long.

This was interesting. I enjoyed reading it, mostly because t...more After the terrible death of her friend Caroline, Portia runs away from Mister and the McGreavey's Home for Wayward Girls and ends up in a traveling circus. Portia works in the sideshow, where she gets to know all the strange "freaks" that work there. Secretly, Portia hopes that she'll find her father, or better yet, that he'll find her. But Portia has more pressing problems to worry about, and Mister never lets anyone get away for long.

This was interesting. I enjoyed reading it, mostly because there was an excellent sense of place. It's the 1930s, and like most people, Portia's people have fallen on hard times and one by one drift away looking for work and money. Portia's father finally leaves, leaving Portia to her aunt Sophie, who eventually brings her to McGreavey's Home for Wayward Girls, run by the creeptastic Mister who has all the girls working like slaves for him.

When Portia runs away and joins the circus, we get up close and personal with a 1930s freak show. As Barnaby mentions in her author's note, but the end of the 1930s sideshows had begun to fall out of favor, as people were beginning to feel that staring at "freaks" was perhaps inappropriate. But, as Barnaby also notes, for many of these people being able to work in a circus sideshow was one of the few paying jobs they'd be able to get. While most of the story focuses on Portia, we do get to get inside some of the heads of the other people who make up the sideshow, and I really enjoyed that.

As for the story itself, it strangely all felt like a set-up for future stories. I checked to see if this was the first in a series, but I couldn't find anything about it. That's definitely what it feels like though. We've met all these interesting characters with all sorts of different things going on. The sideshow people ultimately rescue Portia from Mister and become her family. We know that the ghost of Caroline is still floating around Portia. So...what now? Most of the story was just setting everything up and getting us familiar with the many characters. The plot seemed almost secondary. Is there going to be more?

If Wonder Show is a stand alone, it was kind of odd. If it's the set-up for a series I think it has the potential to be really interesting. I'll have to wait and see.

Wonder Show comes out March 20, 2012.(less)

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Feb 23, 2012 Angie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012-debut-author-challenge

Original review at Beneath the Jacket

First, I love the cover by Evan B. Harris. It's beautiful and I think it definitely draws the eye. I also want a print of it to hang on my wall. Someone make this happen. Please.

Second, I enjoyed the book! From the first page, I was transported to the Depression era. I was drawn in by Barnaby's wonderful writing style, the story, and the colorful cast of characters. Portia has a fire and passion that I liked. No one, not even the creepy Mister is going to sta...more

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Apr 19, 2013 Jenn rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: youngadult

Really liked this novel, which for some reason reminded me of Ray Bradbury - maybe because of the quirky middle-America sort of setting, or the time period - Depression-era, or the quirky characters, or maybe all of that, as well as a nicely Gothic feel - Actually, that may be it: it was a very realistic novel with a Gothic-y, almost supernatural feeling to it. The episodic telling, as well as moving between viewpoint characters within the same story (but in different chapters), also reminded me...more

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Feb 05, 2012 Doret rated it 3 of 5 stars

Story Telling is in Portia's blood and she has a natural talent for it. As a young girl Portia was surrounded by family who tell wonderful tall tales. Portia loved sharing her own stories with Max her dad. When the extended family leaves, Portia no longer has the heart to tell the same stories. Max leaves as well when Portia is nine, leaving her in the care of her aunt Sophia, but not before they go to the circus together. Portia will forever associate the circus with Max.

Thinking it for the be...more

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Mar 10, 2012 Carrie Ardoin rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: from-netgalley

Portia Remini lives with her father and her Aunt in the Great Depression era. Times are tough, and her father takes off to try to find work and make a better life for them, leaving Portia with her Aunt Sophia. Portia is lonely and sad, but she is comforted by the fact that she has always been an adept and creative storyteller, a fact her hardworking and practical aunt doesn't truly appreciate.

After 4 years of just the 2 of them, Aunt Sophia sends the 13 year old Portia off to live at a "Home for...more Portia Remini lives with her father and her Aunt in the Great Depression era. Times are tough, and her father takes off to try to find work and make a better life for them, leaving Portia with her Aunt Sophia. Portia is lonely and sad, but she is comforted by the fact that she has always been an adept and creative storyteller, a fact her hardworking and practical aunt doesn't truly appreciate.

After 4 years of just the 2 of them, Aunt Sophia sends the 13 year old Portia off to live at a "Home for Wayward Girls." When Portia gets there, she discovers that it is a place where an oppressive man called Mister rules over a group of girls with an iron fist and crushes their dreams.

Soon, Portia loses her only friend in the house and runs away to join the traveling circus that happens to be in town. She starts working with the circus' sideshow, and the "freaks" everyone else shuns may come to be the only people she can rely on.

I thought this was a cute story. Around the time of the setting of this book, to run away and join a circus was every kid's fantasy. In the early 20th century, the circus was in its' heyday and the traveling sideshow was its' biggest attraction.

I liked Portia, but I'm not sure if I loved her. She is very resourceful and I liked the way she was able to take care of herself even though she was so young. I guess the fact that she was so young was the basis I had for not loving her totally--she held on to the dream of her father coming back for so long.

I was a little thrown by the way the story, which was told in third person perspective, would switch to a character's first person point of view from time to time. To me, it disrupted the flow of the story a bit. But, I did appreciate how it let me know a little more about the reasons behind that character's words or actions.

Though the middle of the book seemed to drag for me, in part 3 it really picked up. I really loved the ending of the story, and it was unexpected to me. The events that happened made me smile. I would recommend this book to younger teens, as the content is fantastic and the book tells a good story. I believe there were only a couple of curse words in the story, so that is something to watch out for. I'm very glad I read this book! I'd give it 3.75 stars.(less)

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Feb 16, 2012 Ramie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: ya

It's not really a new story -- child thrown away during the depression, lost folks with big dreams running away to join the circus, sideshow "freaks".

In Wonder Show the child thrown away is Portia, her father leaving her in the care of her aunt all the while promising he'll be back. Portia is sure he's run off to join the circus, she saw the look in his eyes when he'd attended one. Her aunt's promise to always be there with her waiting, well it turns out always wasn't so long. Being dropped off...more

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Apr 26, 2013 Abby Johnson rated it 4 of 5 stars

Ever since Portia's father left her to pursue his fortune, Portia has counted the days until he'd come back for her and they'd be a family again. That doesn't change when Sophia deposits Portia at a home for wayward girls, where Portia is convinced that the proprietor has information about her father. After a tragic event, Portia knows that she must seek her father out. Knowing that he loved the circus, Portia finds a carnival that travels with a circus and gets a job, positive that her father w...more

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Mar 26, 2013 Sue Heraper rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: ya-fiction, historical-fiction, yalsa-challenge-2013

Portia runs away from a sinister man called Mister and the Home for Wayward Girls. She seeks asylum with Mosco’s Traveling Wonder Show, and finds a family of sorts. Hoping the traveling carnival will hide her from Mister and help her find her father, who left years before when hunting for work, she is on a quest of self-discovery.

The story takes place in 1939 and the setting is vividly described. Portia is a likeable, complex protagonist. Portia’s tale is mostly told in the third person, but the...more

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May 06, 2013 Tahleen rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical-fiction, teen, young-adult

Originally posted on ,a href="http://brokeandbookish.blogspot.com/2... Broke and the Bookish.

This was one of the contenders for the Morris Award this year, given to the best debut young adult title (first book to be published by the author in any genre and for any audience). While I can see its merits, I can also understand why it didn't take the main prize.

Wonder Show follows the story of Portia Remini, who has been abandoned by her family and left at McGreavy's Home for Wayward Girls, under th...more Originally posted on ,a href="http://brokeandbookish.blogspot.com/2... Broke and the Bookish.

This was one of the contenders for the Morris Award this year, given to the best debut young adult title (first book to be published by the author in any genre and for any audience). While I can see its merits, I can also understand why it didn't take the main prize.

Wonder Show follows the story of Portia Remini, who has been abandoned by her family and left at McGreavy's Home for Wayward Girls, under the "care" of someone everyone just calls "Mister." It's terrible there, but Portia has learned how to get from day to day, all while hoping to find her file and information about where her father might be. Until something so terrible happens that she knows she needs to get out.

This is how she eventually finds her way to Mosco's Traveling Wonder Show, a sideshow for circuses where "human oddities" are the main attraction. Portia is a "normal," someone who is useless for the show, but eventually finds herself as the apprentice for the ballyhoo, the storyteller that brings in the customers. As she learns to live and work with her new companions, she continues to look for her father, and wonders how long it will take Mister to finally catch up with her.

The way this story is told is not one I typically see in YA literature, but it was very effective. The chapters alternate viewpoints between third-person omniscient and first-person narration for each member of the Wonder Show. Almost every member of the Wonder Show gets a short chapter where they explain how they see the events and the world in general, and their views are not always what a reader might expect them to be. It was illuminating without giving too much of the story away; it was just enough to make us understand their world and their desires a little better.

Readers will also learn a lot about the American history of these sideshows, as well. In the end, the author's note talks about all the real people Barnaby based her characters on, including a pair of conjoined twins, a human pincushion, and giants. It is a fascinating world, one that is usually less than ideal for the so-called "freaks" who managed to make a living not only despite, but because of their physical differences during the Great Depression.

Despite its many merits, I'm not surprised this didn't win the Morris Award, only because it seemed like not enough to me. I wanted to know more about the characters, wanted to go deeper into their lives and further into their story. I also agree with the committee that Seraphina by Rachel Hartman, the winner, was indeed better.

I would definitely recommend this novel to readers who are looking for a darker, grittier realistic or historical fiction novel but isn't too graphic. I was often reminded of Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen while reading this, so I would also recommend this to people who enjoyed that book. It's a lighter story than that one, but delves into the dark life of the traveling circus during its heyday.(less)

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Feb 12, 2013 Anna (Gatsby's Girl) rated it 4 of 5 stars

Portia Remini has always lived a life of uncertainty, with only one thing she knows to be true - even though her Father left her with Aunt Sophia, he will return for her someday. So when Sophia sends her to live at McGreavy's Home for Wayward Girls because she can't deal with her wild spirit, Portia is angry and confused. Add into the mix a sinister benefactor known only by the name "Mister" who might possibly be a Bluebeard-esque murderer and you have plenty of reasons for Portia to run away. J...more Portia Remini has always lived a life of uncertainty, with only one thing she knows to be true - even though her Father left her with Aunt Sophia, he will return for her someday. So when Sophia sends her to live at McGreavy's Home for Wayward Girls because she can't deal with her wild spirit, Portia is angry and confused. Add into the mix a sinister benefactor known only by the name "Mister" who might possibly be a Bluebeard-esque murderer and you have plenty of reasons for Portia to run away. Joining together with Mosco's Traveling Wonder Show, Portia becomes an apprentice to the ballyhoo under the pretext of looking for her Father. Along the way, Portia may just find something more important - who she is and what her place in the world happens to be. But when Mister finally catches up to her, will Portia be able to make a stand for her future and set herself free once and for all? I went into this book expecting a fun, thoughtful circus-oriented novel. What I got was a book about a girl named Portia, the normal girl traveling with the freak show and on the run from a twisted benefactor she wants to escape from. I liked the balance of vulnerability and snark in Portia and her familial issues made her very easy to relate to. I wanted (alternately) to give her a hug and to smack her upside the head for making dumb decisions. I think that her friend Caroline served as a portrayl of the road not taken in Portia's own life. It felt like she was the contrasting side of Portia's personality. The whole book gave off a dark, magical feeling like the world was trapped inside a snow globe with a dust storm raging around everything. It was beautiful prose, that was on the verge of poetry. Including narratives from so many characters was a bold choice for a debut author and even though I was disappointed that I couldn't get closer to Portia through perspective focusing, I did like the extra insights. The ending was wonderful, and not overly cliched which made it all the better to me. However, there was a very clunky plot twist explaining away Mister's 'graveyard' with the missing girls. I felt that it came from nowhere and did not fit into the book, or his previous characterization at all. My overall feeling is that this was an unusually haunting and strong debut novel and I am definitely putting this author on my watchlist; you should too!

VERDICT: 4.5/5 Stars

**No money or favors were exchanged for this review. This book is now available in stores, online, or maybe even at your local library.**(less)

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May 30, 2012 Kimathy rated it 3 of 5 stars

I feel like readable is the perfect description for this book. The quagmire Portia is in feels like something complexly overly fantastical. Though there are not too many fanciful things that go on, her situation is too odd for a book set in normal 30s earth. I think Portia herself is lacking in personality. She was bland and I think that “blandess” rubs off on the rest of the cast of characters. I mean the peripheral characters should be fascinating and exciting and unusually mysterious, but I d...more

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Mar 16, 2012 Kellie rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: e-ink, netgalley, not-mine-and-read, for-review

Barnaby has made some interesting choices in her debut: she uses multiple perspectives WHILE switching between first and third person throughout the book. For the most part, I found it worked. It made the story interesting and gave the reader insight into the various personalities that appear in the book and the actions they make. The real issue I had with the changing perspectives is sometimes it changed perspectives too soon – I didn’t get enough emotional connection in some of the important s...more

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Mar 02, 2013 Melanie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: transition, young-adult-literature, 5th-grade, 6th-grade, circus, physical-deformities, physical-disabilities, runaways, orphans, missing-persons, friends

When Portia's father takes off to try to find work to support his daughter, he takes his time returning. In fact he never returns. Portia's Aunt Sophia takes over her care. After a few years, Aunt Sophia decides she needs to be in the company of other girls and hands her off to the McGreavy’s Home for Wayward Girls where Portia and the other girls are used as slave labor.

Portia remains at the girls' home for a few years but she is determined to locate her father. While looking for her file in a...more

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Apr 30, 2013 Tracey rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: ya, e-text, libraryread-idm, hist-fic

Found this novel while browsing new books thru the digital library consortium; it got mixed reviews on GoodReads, and the description sounded interesting.

It's a YA book set during the Depression about a young girl, Portia, whose father leaves her with an aunt, who sends her to a Home for Wayward Girls. Portia, after a heart-wrenching experience, runs away to join the circus. It's got some evocative writing, an engaging (if not totally likable) main character and a serviceable plot. I was hoping...more

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Feb 15, 2013 Warren-Newport Public Library rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, history, romance, young-adult

1930's carnival side show, creepy authoritarian dude, a sweet maybe love story, this book is like a YA version of HBO's Carnivale and I like it. Alot. I thought the writing was very strong and had a folktale vibe that went along with the main theme of stories that we create about our lives and who we are. The romance was light and very sweet. I also found the world building really strong and the setting very vivid from the sinister Mister's house to the traveling show. Really liked this book.

pg....more

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Dec 12, 2012 Courtney rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical-fiction, teen-fiction

Portia's life has been anything but ordinary. First, Portia is growing up during the Dust Bowl and times are tough. Her mother vanished when she was young. Her father stuck around and encouraged her penchant for telling stories, but as times grew worse, he left as well and Portia is stuck living with her spinster aunt. Try as she might, Portia's aunt is not prepared to deal with a willful, imaginative girl. Portia is then sent off to live in a home for "wayward" girls. It's a brutal place with l...more Portia's life has been anything but ordinary. First, Portia is growing up during the Dust Bowl and times are tough. Her mother vanished when she was young. Her father stuck around and encouraged her penchant for telling stories, but as times grew worse, he left as well and Portia is stuck living with her spinster aunt. Try as she might, Portia's aunt is not prepared to deal with a willful, imaginative girl. Portia is then sent off to live in a home for "wayward" girls. It's a brutal place with little hope. But Portia is not your average girl and craves freedom more than anything. She is convinced that her father is traveling with a circus and is determined to find him one day. Eventually, after some tragic events, Portia finds the will to escape the home and sets off to join up with the circus/sideshow that recently passed through. She figures that will be the best way to begin her search for her father.
While her father isn't with this particular outfit, Portia joins up with the sideshow anyway. Since she isn't a "freak" or a "human oddity", she has to take one of the few other positions available. She quickly fails at the domestic aspects of keeping a sideshow running, but her quick thinking and talent for storytelling land her a job with the head "talker" (the guy who draws people into the sideshow and speaks on stage). Bit by bit, Portia becomes ever more immersed in the sideshow until it becomes apparent that this is more than just looking for an absent father. Just when Portia is trying to decide what her next move will be, the secrets from her past catch up with her.
I really enjoyed this quirky tale of sideshows and their inhabitants. The setting is amazing and the narration entirely charming. While most of it is told by an omniscient narrator, there are excerpts from Portia's notebooks, documents and letters and narration from a variety of colorful characters. I love the setting; there are entirely too few books out there set in depression-era sideshows. It's historical fiction with a defiant flair. (less)

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Feb 14, 2013 Amanda rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: ya, hub-challenge-2013

1930's carnival side show, creepy authoritarian dude, a sweet maybe love story, this book is like a YA version of HBO's Carnivale and I like it. Alot. I thought the writing was very strong and had a folktale vibe that went along with the main theme of stories that we create about our lives and who we are. The romance was light and very sweet. I also found the world building really strong and the setting very vivid from the sinister Mister's house to the traveling show. Really liked this book.

pg....more

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Jan 06, 2013 Anna rated it 4 of 5 stars

Wonder Show is a mixture between Cirque Du Freak and the musical Annie. Porti, the protagonist, who I most likely imagined as much younger than she is supposed to be (she was probably eight or nine in my mind, where I think she was supposed to be fourteen or so), has an overactive imagination, much like myself. But this book creates an excellent dark circus atmosphere with all of the freaks, who, when you really get to know them, aren't freaks at all. Although this is one of those "growing up" s...more

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May 15, 2013 Jim rated it 3 of 5 stars

It wasn't until I downloaded this book that I realized that it was written for "young adults" but I read it anyway (it's short) and like many books in this genre it can be enjoyed by more mature readers because the story at least holds your interest even if the prose is not particularly sophisticated.

Portia is a girl of 9 in 1935 when her father leaves her with her Aunt Sophia. Her Mom flew the coop several years earlier. Four years later when Aunt Sophia feels like she can't or doesn't want to...more

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Jul 22, 2012 Kim McGee rated it 4 of 5 stars

Portia is a girl who was unlucky enough to lose her mother and then have her dad go off leaving her in the care of an aunt who didn't want the responsibility of raising a headstrong girl. She is given to a home run by a very dishonest man who runs it like a sweatshop or worse. So what is left for Portia to do other than run away to the circus to look for her father and hopefully find herself. The circus she meets up with is none other than Mosco's Traveling Wonder Show and Portia's new friends i...more

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Feb 21, 2013 Elizabeth added it

Shelves: yalsa-hub-reading-challenge, ya-realistic-fiction, ya-read, ya-adventure

Despite the cover, this is not the book for the kid who wants to run away and join the circus. Too bad because we've all been there, right? I mean, there is some running away and there is a circus, but really it's a book about finding. Finding yourself, finding your family, finding a family, finding a future, finding where you belong and who you belong to.

In actuality, this a a book for kids who like their fiction a bit dark and even a bit sad and melancholy. It is absoultely beautifully written...more

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