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The Charlatan's Boy: A Novel

4.02 of 5 stars 4.02 · rating details · 195 ratings · 68 reviews

“I only know one man who might be able to tell me where I come from, and that man is a liar and a fraud.”

As far back as he can remember, the orphan Grady has tramped from village to village in the company of a huckster named Floyd. With his adolescent accomplice, Floyd perpetrates a variety of hoaxes and flimflams on the good citizens of the Corenwald frontier, such as the...more

Paperback, 320 pages

Published October 5th 2010 by WaterBrook Press (first published August 10th 2010)

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Apr 19, 2013 Yvonne Anderson rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a fun book - I plan to hang onto it and give it to my grandkids when they're a little older (the oldest is currently 7, and an avid reader).

But I'm afraid their dad, who's a stickler for proper grammar, might not approve. The story is told in first person by a young protagonist who's never been to school. Consequently he speaks in the vernacular of his fantasy-world day (which sounds an awful lot like what my neighbors speak... does this mean I don't live in the real world?). It's approp...more

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Mar 25, 2013 Anne Campbell rated it 4 of 5 stars

The Charlatan's Boy by Jonathan Rogers is one book that you can judge by its cover. The cover art for this book suits it perfectly, and the reader can expect to enter the world of sideshows with their oddities, wonders, curiosities, and secrets. Hyped to be a little bit Mark Twain and a little bit C.S. Lewis, The Charlatan's Boy had big shoes to fill. I would place it more in the vein of Mark Twain's style, and there were several similarities to Huck Finn in the setting, characters, and story l...more The Charlatan's Boy by Jonathan Rogers is one book that you can judge by its cover. The cover art for this book suits it perfectly, and the reader can expect to enter the world of sideshows with their oddities, wonders, curiosities, and secrets. Hyped to be a little bit Mark Twain and a little bit C.S. Lewis, The Charlatan's Boy had big shoes to fill. I would place it more in the vein of Mark Twain's style, and there were several similarities to Huck Finn in the setting, characters, and story line. Having just read and discussed Huck Finn with our teen literature group, my son and I found many examples from The Charlatan's Boy that reminded us of Huck Finn's world. I read this book aloud to all three of my boys (8, 12, and 14,) and there were many times when they laughed out loud and begged me to read one more chapter.

I was slowly drawn into the story as Grady described his exploits with Floyd, "pulling a variety of hoaxes and flimflams on the good citizens of the Corenwald frontier." Grady is really on a quest for his identity, and his journey is both compelling and touching. I especially liked that the book was written in dialect, which makes it fun to read aloud and helps the reader identify with Grady. The Charlatan's Boy is written beautifully, and some passages beg to be re-read for their poignancy as Grady struggles to find himself:

"If anybody ever needed a phrenology reading, I reckon it was Floyd and me. We didn't live in no village. Nobody knew us from a barn cat. And as for me, I didn't know the first thing about who I was.

One night when Floyd was gone for the evening, I pulled out that baldhead map and felt around on my skull for bumps and gulleys, but I didn't have much luck figuring anything out. Then I felt a nice big bump just behind my right ear--where the honesty muscle is supposed to be. I can't tell you how happy I was. But then the bump got to itching me, and I remembered it was a mosquito bite.

I think I'm a honest feller. I want to do what's right, but I aint had a lot of practice at it. Being in Floyd's employ, a feller don't get a lot of opportunity to exercise his honesty muscle.

So here's what I'd like to know: if a feller feels honest, if he wants to be honest but he don't get much chance to talk honest or act honest, is he a honest feller or not?"

I'll be recommending The Charlatan's Boy to my teen literature group, and I think it is well worth reading.

{The publisher has provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review}(less)

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Apr 28, 2012 Tammy rated it 5 of 5 stars

Orphan Grady knew one truth in his life, he was the charlatan’s boy. The charlatan was Floyd Wendellson. Floyd was a huckster, a true fraud and a liar. He and Grady did the feechie show for many years. Floyd told all about the legendary feechiefolk, while Grady played the part of a feechie. Some really thought Grady was a he-feechie. But people were no longer afraid of the feechies and didn’t believe Floyd’s stories anymore. So Floyd and Grady went from village to village using one scheme after...more Orphan Grady knew one truth in his life, he was the charlatan’s boy. The charlatan was Floyd Wendellson. Floyd was a huckster, a true fraud and a liar. He and Grady did the feechie show for many years. Floyd told all about the legendary feechiefolk, while Grady played the part of a feechie. Some really thought Grady was a he-feechie. But people were no longer afraid of the feechies and didn’t believe Floyd’s stories anymore. So Floyd and Grady went from village to village using one scheme after another, swindling people out of their money, all the time longing to revive the feechie show.

Grady was tired of his lifestyle of living lies. He wanted to find his family, to know who he was. Every time he asked Floyd where he came from, he got told a different story. When Grady went to a village, he searched for someone who was as ugly as he was that could be his family. He also missed playing the feechie, it had been a part of him for so long. Floyd cooked up a plan to start a feechie scare, to get people talking about feechies again. Then they could revive their feechie show.

Does Grady ever get to be a feechie again? Does he ever find out the truth about his family? Read The Charlatan’s Boy to discover what becomes of Grady, Floyd, and their travelling show.

This story is set in a time period when people went around making money from villagers using shell games, fortune telling, juggling acts, and such. The characters have an interesting dialect – very bad English. Grady is a likable character with a good heart, Floyd is not. As I was reading through the book, I found myself wishing for Grady to make a better life for himself and finally belong to someone. The author made up names and words that make for an interesting and different type of story. If you want to read a book that is nothing like your favorite genre, I would recommend this one.

Read chapters 1 & 2 here
Visit the Jonathan Rogers' website

Jonathan Rogers grew up in Georgia, where he spent many happy hours in the swamps and riverbottoms on which the wild places of The Charlatan’s Boy are based. He received his undergraduate degree from Furman University in South Carolina and holds a Ph.D. in seventeenth-century English literature from Vanderbilt University. He lives with his family in Nashville, Tennessee..

I received a free copy of this book from WaterBrook Multnomah for my honest review.(less)

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May 09, 2011 H.A. Titus rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: allegory, christian-fantasy, christian-speculative-fiction, humor

"I only know one man who might be able to tell me where I come from, and that man is a liar and a fraud."

The only life orphan Grady has known is a dangerous one, tramping from village to village with a huckster named Floyd. Grady and Floyd specialize in a show called The Wild Man of the Feechiefen Swamp--because everyone wants to see a real live, in the flesh feechie, right?

Not necessarily.

When Floyd and Grady get down on their luck, they try out some other schemes, to no avail. Seems like the...more

"I only know one man who might be able to tell me where I come from, and that man is a liar and a fraud."

The only life orphan Grady has known is a dangerous one, tramping from village to village with a huckster named Floyd. Grady and Floyd specialize in a show called The Wild Man of the Feechiefen Swamp--because everyone wants to see a real live, in the flesh feechie, right?

Not necessarily.

When Floyd and Grady get down on their luck, they try out some other schemes, to no avail. Seems like the only thing they were ever good at was the feechie scam. So they dream up an idea guaranteed to make them money--they're going to create a big feechie scare that will have folks flocking to see their act!

The Charlatan's Boy by Jonathon Rogers is a fun read in an unusual world. Corenwald is populated with coal miners, farmers, buckskin-clad hunters, hucksters, and of course the infamous feechie, a creature with a propensity for bad grammer, worse manners, fisticuffs, and gator-grabblin'. Readers were first introduced to Corenwald with Rogers' The Way of the Wilderking Trilogy: The Bark of the Bog Owl, The Secret of the Swamp King, andThe Way of the Wilderking, an allegory of King David.

The Charlatan's Boy continues the fun as Rogers chronicles the escapades of Grady and Floyd. I can't count the number of times I giggled while I was reading this book. Floyd is a ridiculous old shyster, always scheming up the next big thing, and sometimes it made me want to give him a big kick. Grady was a sweet character, loyal, funny, and even honest, despite his trade. And all the supporting characters had quirks that added a lot to the general fun of the book.

Reading this book was like curling up in a camping chair to listen to a storyteller by the campfire. This isn't an action-filled book, so the plot tends to take it's own sweet time getting to the conclusion, but that's not a bad thing at all. In fact, the book wouldn't be half so fun if it had focused just on the action and conclusion.

In my mind, The Charlatan's Boy makes a perfect family read-aloud story. It gets five stars!

~*~I received this book for free from WaterBrook Press's Blogging for Books program in exchange for my honest review~*~(less)

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Apr 10, 2011 Becca rated it 5 of 5 stars

Jonathan Rogers chooses the simplest of settings -- a backwoods snake-oil circuit -- to drop a young orphan boy dragged into the universal search for identity. Grady is an ugly kid. In fact, he's ugly enough to be a cash-earning candidate as the ugliest boy in the world. Yet it's the aesthetics of soul that seem to trouble him most. With the brilliant Southern subtlety cousin to writers like O'Connor, Rogers uses an elementary, rural framework to explore everyman's journey. And he excels.

I've n...more

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Dec 21, 2010 Stephen Escalera rated it 5 of 5 stars

"See a genuine he-feechie alive and in the flesh! Amazing! Astonishing! You've never seen anyone like him!"

The life of a traveling huckster was the only life Grady could remember. He had played the part of "The Wild Man of Feechiefen Swamp" for so long, he believed he WAS a feechie. But ever since people stopped believing in feechies, Grady and "Perfesser" Floyd were having a harder time coming up with new ideas to trick people out their hard-earned money. To top it off, the "perfesser" shocked...more "See a genuine he-feechie alive and in the flesh! Amazing! Astonishing! You've never seen anyone like him!"

The life of a traveling huckster was the only life Grady could remember. He had played the part of "The Wild Man of Feechiefen Swamp" for so long, he believed he WAS a feechie. But ever since people stopped believing in feechies, Grady and "Perfesser" Floyd were having a harder time coming up with new ideas to trick people out their hard-earned money. To top it off, the "perfesser" shocked Grady by telling him that Grady WASN'T a feechie at all. Now, with every new change in venue, Grady wonders more and more where he fits in and whether he could ever have a family or even a friend who would truly like him, let alone LOVE him. When Floyd hits on the idea of reviving the feechie business, the results are often hilarious and the final outcome completely unexpected.

In The Charlatan's Boy, Jonathan Rogers weaves a spellbinding tale that will have you keeping late nights just to read one more page. The characters are believable and the word-pictures Rogers creates stir up the imagination. But the star of the book is Grady, who narrates the story in the first person, telling of the hijinks and hoaxes he and Floyd perpetrate. Although he travels with Floyd helping him make his living by tricking others, it is more out of a sense of belonging and duty that he does so. Grady knows what he is doing is dishonest, but tries to justify the lies by telling himself that it's for a good cause, even if that cause was making Floyd rich. But even here, Grady's conscious is pulling him one way while his sense of duty goes another. "I'm think I'm an honest feller. I want to do what's right, but I ain't had a lot of practice at it. Being in Floyd's employ, a feller don't get a lot of opportunity to exercise his honesty muscle."

The theme woven throughout the book is Grady's down-to-earth musings about life, especially a life characterized by knowing (or the lack of knowing) who a person is. ("A man who makes a habit of telling the truth assumes that other folks is in the same habit.") Unlike many other books of this genre targeting Christian young adults, the tone is never preachy or moralizing. It's simply the story of one boy trying to find where he belongs in the world. Grady, when faced with his new future and finally realizing Floyd's meanness, perfectly summarizes in one sentence the truth we come to see in his story:

"It was true that I was a charlatan's boy, but there was things about me that was a whole lot truer."

Thanks to WaterBrook Multnomah for the providing a review copy of this book. (less)

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Dec 13, 2010 Edna Tollison rated it 5 of 5 stars

I am not a young adult but an old great-granny but I really loved this book, I laughed all the way through. Stephen Escalera lives in my state and I thought that was really great, he went to a college Furman University about 40 miles from me. Now back to the story, I have never in my life heard of a feechie nor the swamp where they were supposed to be from. Grady romped all over the country with Floyd as they tried one thing after another to make money, Floyd didn't want to make a living by work...more

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Dec 04, 2010 Brenda Casto rated it 5 of 5 stars

The Charlatan's Boy captures your imagination as it draws you into the world of Feechie's and the lives of Floyd a flim flammer, who is always thinking up the newest scheme to make money and young Grady a boy who travels with him and is drawn into his elaborate schemes!
All Grady ever remembers is traveling with Floyd from village to village playing a feechie, he has played the roll for so long that it gives him an identity, never knowing anything about himself other than what Floyd tells him, h...more

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Apr 22, 2011 Lydia M rated it 4 of 5 stars

"Floyd made his living by telling lies, and I made mine by being so ugly" The Charlatan's Boy. Grady is Floyd's partner in crime as they travel from village to village putting on a show with Grady featuring as "The Wild Man of Feechiefen Swamp." But as less and less people actually believe in feechies, their show becomes less and less popular. For a while they drifted from scam to scam without much success until Floyd came up with an idea that was sure to make them rich.

The Charlatan's Boy is an...more

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Aug 19, 2011 Melanie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: kids_books, young-adult, waterbrook-multnomah

Jonathan Rogers has delivered a very fun story that will appeal to kids (and kids at heart.) Grady is a young boy who doesn’t know much about his past. His only link is a swindler named Floyd, who may, or may not be, Grady’s father. But for as long as he has memory, the two of them have been traveling the country performing a great “Feechie” act. A Feechie is a mysterious and elusive group of people who live in the swamps that may, or may not exist- not that a small fact like that could stop Fl...more

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Feb 13, 2011 Julie Smith (Knitting and Sundries) rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: reviewed

Have you ever read a book and thought to yourself, "This book deserves to be read out loud?". The Charlatan's Boy is definitely one of them. The dialect, the story, the action - this is just a great read out loud fun type of book.

We have Grady, with one blue and one green eye - short, wiry, and ugly with his unibrow, who always believed he was a feechie boy, being raised by Floyd, a traveling huckster. When the towns and villages stop believing in feechiefolk, Floyd paints the wagon and takes on...more

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Aug 09, 2011 Mymcbooks rated it 4 of 5 stars

The Charlatan’s Boy is about an orphan boy named Grady tramped from village to village with a huckster names Floyd, pulling a variety of hoaxes on the good citizens of the Corenwald frontier.

Grady couldn’t remember anything about his birth but only what Floyd told him. Sometimes, Floyd would tell him that his mother gave him away to him because he was too ugly to keep.

Grady believed what Floyd said must be true, that he was so ugly that his mom didn’t want him, so he spent his young life findin...more

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Dec 31, 2010 Mike rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-read-in-2010

"The Charlatan's Boy, by Jonathan Rogers is a unique story of right and wrong. Floyd, the ever present showman takes Grady an orphan without any past or apparent future, and transforms him into a showman. Floyd is the consomit showman and flim flammer, who cheats the unsuspecting people of the countryside out of their coppers by fakery and shams. Grady, who has no family that he can remember, other than what Floyd tells him, is transformed into a showman's apprentice. He takes great pride in bec...more

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Dec 22, 2010 Kevin rated it 3 of 5 stars

One of the challenges of reading young adult fiction is trying to determine what actual young people might think. As an adult I have different expectations, and experience books differently, and this makes reviews tricky. To be honest, I read YA fiction mostly because it offers some very creative approaches to fantasy and imaginative fiction that is often lacking in “adult” fiction.

This came up again while reading The Charlatan’s Boy by Jonathan Rogers.

My first mistake was not really thinking of...more

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Aug 07, 2012 TAMMY CUEVAS rated it 5 of 5 stars

Grady has no memory of his origins. Not for lack of trying, though; he has spent many hours trying to remember a family or home before Floyd, a huckster who makes his living perpetrating hoaxes on villages. Each time he asks Floyd where he came from, he receives a different story. One story is that he found him squawling under a palmetto bush; another story is that his real mama gave him away because he was too ugly to keep. Grady is inclined to believe that one, because he looks different from...more

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May 18, 2012 Natasha rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: exchange-for-a-review, fiction

I was provided this book in exchange for a review and am not being paid to share my wit and wisdom, etc.

So I was super excited about this book. Mostly because the title brings to mind so many interesting scenarios. None of my imagined plots ever came to fruitation, of course, but the book is just as good as I wanted it to be. Prior reviews have labeled the "voice" spot on as a spoof of Mark Twain's HUCKLEBERRY FINN in language and description. The author draws on his Georgia roots with folk sayi...more

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May 25, 2011 Charles rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: summer-2011

I first found out about Jonathan Rogers through one of my favorite writers/artists' blog that he contributes to. Inevitably, this led me to his own blog, which has become my daily dose of humor, fine writing, and spun yarns - the closest thing I've found to an actual Tennessean front porch on the Internet.

Well, my old piano teacher and good friend recommended this book to start my introduction to Dr Roger's fantastic world of charlatans, feechie-imitators, and swamp-monster-sound-makers. It came...more

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Dec 21, 2011 Dianna rated it 5 of 5 stars

“Laaadies and geeentermen! Perfesser Floyd presents: the Wild Man of the Feechienfen Swamp!” Grady has always been with Floyd for as far as he can remember, going from village to village, performing different acts. He remembers when business was good and he would perform as “the Wild Man of th Feechienfen Swamp”, but no one believes in feechies anymore. Floyd and Grady come up with a plan to create their own Great Feechie Scare, so people will pay once more again, to see their act. After so many...more

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Jun 12, 2012 Lorri rated it 3 of 5 stars

This is a light read, telling the story of Grady who is a very ugly boy and an orphan. The only father he has ever known is Floyd, who uses him to make money with one kind of scheme or another, often getting them in trouble. He has always been told that he was so ugly his own mother gave him up. Not something a child should ever hear. There is one person that would love for Grady to stay and live with her, but he chooses instead to go with Floyd. After going a while without making much money, Fl...more

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Jan 22, 2011 Sherrah rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-in-2011

On the Outside:
I LOVE the cover. I think it’s beautiful and brilliant. The cover alone gives you a great idea of what you’ll get when you open the book.

First Lines:
“I don’t remember one thing about the day I was born. It hasn’t been for lack of trying either. I’ve set for hours trying to go back as far as I could, but the earliest thing I remember is riding in the back of Floyd’s wagon and looking at myself in a looking glass.”

It’s a promising start. You get a good sense of Grady’s voice here, a...more On the Outside:
I LOVE the cover. I think it’s beautiful and brilliant. The cover alone gives you a great idea of what you’ll get when you open the book.

First Lines:
“I don’t remember one thing about the day I was born. It hasn’t been for lack of trying either. I’ve set for hours trying to go back as far as I could, but the earliest thing I remember is riding in the back of Floyd’s wagon and looking at myself in a looking glass.”

It’s a promising start. You get a good sense of Grady’s voice here, and Jonathan Rogers does an excellent job of sustaining that voice throughout. You also get a glimpse of the one thing Grady wants more than anything else–to know who he really is.

Plot Lines:
Grady is an orphan, and the only life he’s ever known is the one he has with Floyd. Floyd is a traveling showman, a charlatan playing tricks and pulling off hoaxes in every village he goes to. And his greatest act involves Grady playing “The Wild Man of the Feechiefen Swamp” to Floyd’s “Perfessor” and “Feechie Expert”. But the people of Corenwald don’t believe in Feechies anymore, and if Floyd and Grady are going to make a living, they’ll need to find a way to make people believe. After trying out a number of great hoaxes (one of which leads to Grady finding out he is only the second Ugliest Boy in the World), they set out to create another Great Feechie Scare. Grady misses the simpler days when he could just play the part of a feechie, but through it all, he can’t help wondering who he really is and where he really came from.

The Bottom Line:
There were a lot of things I really liked about this book. Grady is a great character. Throughout the whole book, we know exactly what Grady wants, and we really come to sympathize with him and his quest to find out who he is. The language is superb. Grady’s voice–slang, improper grammar, dialect, and all–stays strong throughout the book and kept me laughing. I imagine it would be a great book to read aloud. Grady and Floyd get up to a number of entertaining shenanigans. It’s an amusing, and overall heartwarming, story.

I did, however, feel that the book slowed down in the middle. It became more episodic as we see Grady try on one identity after another. Once Grady and Floyd start the Great Feechie Scare, things really pick up.

Overall, I strongly recommend this book, especially for young boys.(less)

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Feb 22, 2011 Nonners rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: christian-based, quotable

Plot: 4 Stars
I really like the find-your-own-way tale that the story rides. I also like the sort of, unexpected ending. I say “sort of” because through the entire story I was looking for something to pop out at me and make me say “wow!” or “no way!” I was looking because the whole story seemed pretty simple and straight forward. Everything that happened I expected, except the riding a bull bit…did not expect that. I was actually scared for Grady’s life and wanted to laugh at the same time. I wis...more

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Nov 08, 2011 Amanda rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: childrens-books, humor, paranormal-fantasy-sci-fi, review-books, ya

The Charlatan's Boy is a great fantasy book suitable for all ages. It's the ultimate "finding yourself" story. The only life 16-year-old Grady remembers is travelling with con-man Floyd. One part of Grady longs for a home and a family, and he looks for someone who looks like him in every town they visit. As one of Grady's claims-to-fame is being the Ugliest Boy in the World, this search makes for an entertaining narrative. In one town, he does see a women who he thinks may be his mother and he g...more

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Jul 07, 2011 Courtney rated it 4 of 5 stars

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review”.

The story of Grady and his adventures through Cornewald with mentor, scoundrel, and friend Floyd, was an enchanting story, full of twists and turns, dealing with scams, shows, and urban legends of the local people. The story, however, is simple and surprisingly down to earth, and realistic.

All of the characters in the book have a strong voice, and you can easily relate and immerse yourself in every single o...more

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Jan 05, 2011 Reedross rated it 3 of 5 stars

I have to state that I agree with some of the other reviews that this is not a 'Christian book' in the true sense of the word. Yes, it is a clean story - but it contained no overt Christian message. That said, it was a cute story. I felt so sorry for Grady who just wanted to be loved and belong to a family. The storyline about being in a 'Feechie show' was humorous and engaging, but did get a little bogged down at times. I will say that the ending surprised me (I won't spill the beans for anyone...more

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Apr 12, 2011 Candace rated it 4 of 5 stars

I have to say, this book ended up being much more then I ever expected. It has a fantastic cover that really draws the eye, and once you start reading it you really see how well it fits. This book is full of color. Colorful characters with crazy personalities being the top of that list.

Grady is such a fun character but you can't help but feel a little sorry for him. He has no family, no one to love except for Floyd who is really just using him as an act for all his shows. Floyd is a very colorf...more I have to say, this book ended up being much more then I ever expected. It has a fantastic cover that really draws the eye, and once you start reading it you really see how well it fits. This book is full of color. Colorful characters with crazy personalities being the top of that list.

Grady is such a fun character but you can't help but feel a little sorry for him. He has no family, no one to love except for Floyd who is really just using him as an act for all his shows. Floyd is a very colorful character and although you can't exactly like him, he is definitely interesting and he drew many a snort from me. Seriously, he is one good actor! And he says some of the craziest funniest things. But Grady was the star of the show. He has compassion, he has a conscious. He doesn't want to swindle people and the only thing that feels right to him is being a Feechie. The Feechie act feels okay to him so when they get the brilliant idea of reviving the Feechie trade by creating a Feechie scare, well things go a little crazy!

This book was seriously laugh out loud funny. I mean, seriously funny. One night I was up late reading when I snorted my tea right out my nose cause funny just popped up out of no where! Okay, so I should have known better. But you really got to watch for those funny parts!
Here's one part I want to share. This is when Grady convinces the drovers (cattle drivers) to steal back their cows from the thieves who stole them. He convinced them to dress up as Feechie folk and scare the liver out of 'em.

There was what you might call a breakdown in discipline on the part of the cattle rustlers. All over the pasture, feechiefolks was chasing rustlers around, roaring and whooping and howling, and the rustlers was shrieking and crying and falling down and scrambling back up to run some more. One of them big mountain men run past me like a streak of lightning- faster than I ever seen such a big man run in my life- ridden by a drover- feechie switching him like a quarter-racer.
The rout was so complete, it was hard to believe the drovers had ever thought they couldn't whip them. It just goes to show what fear of the unknown will do to a feller. If they had only stopped for a minute and got theirselves organized, them big rustlers could have beat back the drovers in about two shakes of a lamb's tail. But panic carried that day, and the rustler's disappeared up the drove road fast as they ever could.
pg. 244 & 245

This book would be brilliant in audio. Just that little taste I gave you shows you that it's in dialect so it's so easy to imagine and hear everything. This is one book I can see myself reading aloud to my kids in a few years. But if it's on audio I would love listening to it on a road trip.

This is a young adult fantasy but it has a bit more of a historical feel to it. It's fantasy because it's a made up country, but I can imagine it being much like that in the late 1800's. There's a bit more of a fantasy element in one part and I can see that the future book(s?) may be more fantasy.

This is a book that I can get everyone to read. I'll be passing on my copy to friends and family and I'm sure it'll get it's share of reading because I'm sure they will all like it.

WaterBrook Press seems to be a publisher of Christian literature but this book doesn't even mention God that I remember. There's nothing religious in it whatsoever, so if that would hold you back, don't let it. It's just clean, no cursing, no sex, no violence. I'm sure there are underlying messages of being a good person and all that, but there wasn't a single thing that would lead me to call it Christian lit. (less)

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Dec 29, 2010 Nancy rated it 4 of 5 stars

As far back as he can remember, the orphan Grady has tramped from village to village in the company of a huckster named Floyd. With his adolescent accomplice, Floyd perpetrates a variety of hoaxes and flimflams on the good citizens of the Corenwald frontier, such as the Ugliest Boy in the World act.

It’s a hard way to make a living, made harder by the memory of fatter times when audiences thronged to see young Grady perform as “The Wild Man of the Feechiefen Swamp.” But what can they do? Nobody b...more As far back as he can remember, the orphan Grady has tramped from village to village in the company of a huckster named Floyd. With his adolescent accomplice, Floyd perpetrates a variety of hoaxes and flimflams on the good citizens of the Corenwald frontier, such as the Ugliest Boy in the World act.

It’s a hard way to make a living, made harder by the memory of fatter times when audiences thronged to see young Grady perform as “The Wild Man of the Feechiefen Swamp.” But what can they do? Nobody believes in feechies anymore.

When Floyd stages an elaborate plot to revive Corenwalders’ belief in the mythical swamp-dwellers known as the feechiefolk, he overshoots the mark. Floyd’s Great Feechie Scare becomes widespread panic. Eager audiences become angry mobs, and in the ensuing chaos, the Charlatan’s Boy discovers the truth that has evaded him all his life—and will change his path forever.

My Take: I had no idea what to expect with this book but found the writing style similar to Mark Twain's Huck Finn. Then ending is so surprising, I simply didn't see it coming.

Grady is an ugly child who doesn't really belong. He's not a civilizer, not a drover, not a miner, not really anything. Floyd is his traveling companion and the talent behind the money making business. Like the traveling professor in "The Wizard of Oz," Floyd sells his wares or acts from a wagon. What he sells is usually Feechie.

What is a Feechie? you might ask. I have no idea but with a actor as good as Perfessor Floyd (No, that is not a typo) and a boy as ugly as Grady, their act is sure to entertain any in the vicinity. Until Feechies are no longer a curiosity or fear, that is. They try other acts but Feechies is where they bloom so the duo create a Feechie scare to get into the purses of all.

Entertaining and well written, the story is written first person by Grady. Just Grady. No last name. The writing never strays and Grady continues narrating the comings and goings with detail that had me giggling, capturing the personalities and quirks so very well.

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Jan 07, 2012 Kristi rated it 4 of 5 stars

I don’t remember the last time I enjoyed a youth fiction book so much. So fun I can hardly stand it. One of the reviewers (quoted on the back of the book) likened this story to a cross between Mark Twain and C.S. Lewis. I can think of no description more apt, except that this is funnier and more tender than either author ever was. Great themes of integrity, believing in yourself, loving people exactly as they are, and hope. I recommend this to any avid reader, but particularly to my teacher frie...more

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Apr 28, 2011 Valentina rated it 4 of 5 stars

I absolutely had a blast with this book. Just the cover is enough to put me in a good mood.

I love the quirky almost Mark Twain-y style of writing, with its dialectical nuances and grammatical details. Grady, the main character is hilarious, with a self-deprecating humor that sustains the book all the way through.

The story line is solid, which is hard to do when you’re dealing with so many fantastical elements , and I never found myself bored or wishing a particular section would be over. All the...more

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Jul 04, 2012 Lenore Webb rated it 5 of 5 stars

Did you ever day dream of running away with the circus or zoo or fair? You know what I mean. Those times when you imagine life as all fun and no resposibities. But what would it be like to really live that life. Always going from place to place, no real home, and never feeling like you belong in one place either.

All of this came to mind while I was reading The Charlatan's Boy by Jonathan Rogers. This was so fun to escape into. It takes place in the land of Corenwald with Grady who is traveling...more

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May 13, 2011 Rachel rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: blogging-for-books

Storyline - Grady is an orphan who has only known the life of show business as Floyd passes him off as a fabled creature known as the feechie, which the boy believes he is for most his life. But as people stop believing in such things, Grady learns he isn't the wild creature and the two have to find a new way to support themselves. As they go from one idea to another, the finally land on an idea to bring back the feechie trade. They have to make people believe that feechies are beginning to atta...more Storyline - Grady is an orphan who has only known the life of show business as Floyd passes him off as a fabled creature known as the feechie, which the boy believes he is for most his life. But as people stop believing in such things, Grady learns he isn't the wild creature and the two have to find a new way to support themselves. As they go from one idea to another, the finally land on an idea to bring back the feechie trade. They have to make people believe that feechies are beginning to attack the towns and villages. But as the feechie trade returns, something big is about to change in Grady's life.

Positive - Some good points in the book are that it doesn't matter what you look like to be loved and that the truth makes Grady feel good. Barbary, a friend of Grady, defends him and cares about him for who he is unlike Floyd who doesn't show Grady much kindness or approval unless he does something to make his life better. Also, Grady once defends Barbary even at his own risk.

Negative - When Grady and Floyd start making people believe that feechies are going to attack them, the boy doesn't see that he's hurting people when he tricks them. Instead, he believes that they are responsible for how they react to his actions and it is their fault for believing it is feechies. He also reasons that the things he and Floyd do are show business and it is an art instead of tricks and playing off of people's beliefs and fears to get money. Grady never seems to see this though in the book.

Writing - Jonathan Rogers wrote an funny tale about a boy who doesn't know who he is. But the story didn't seem to flow that well from one event to the next. It seemed a little disjointed and choppy. The storyline was a little weak with Grady mostly just telling how the feechie trade ended for him, the thing that happened with different trades until the rebuilding of the feechie trade, and what happened when the two had built up a scare. Grady, though, describes things in a funny way such as what "leaving them wanting more" is like which puts a smiles on the readers face. But Grady doesn't seem to learn any important lessons such as playing off people's fears is wrong. Perhaps he learned something when he was betrayed by his only friend and realizes he was a charlatan but it wasn't entirely clear. The ending, though, had a nice sentiment to it. Whether or not I read the next book about Grady is uncertain.

Personal Opinion - The book was okay. Not bad but not great either. It did have moments of cute and sweetness that made me giggle and smile. But there was a lot of telling what was happening before it got to a tale of a particular event. I think that is what made it so choppy and even slow moving and perhaps why I think it is only okay. It did give a good lesson on how we stick with things just because we know them like Grady stayed with Floyd when he had a chance to get out and have what he wanted. It also showed how, if we believe a lie long enough, we begin to believe it or how, if we tell enough lies, we begin to get good at them. Like I said, the book is okay but if someone told me they were going to read it, I wouldn't tell them not to. Someday, if I re-read it, I might have a different opinion after finding something I didn't see the first time.

Disclaimer - In exchange for an honest review, I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group.(less)

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About Jonathan Rogers

Jonathan Rogers grew up in Georgia, where he spent many happy hours in the swamps and riverbottoms on which the wild places of The Wilderking are based. He received his undergraduate degree from Furman University in South Carolina and holds a Ph.D. in seventeenth-century English literature from Vanderbilt University. The Bark of the Bog Owl has already found a receptive audience among Jonathan’s o...more

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Books by Jonathan Rogers

The Bark Of The Bog Owl (The Wilderking Trilogy #1)

The Secret of the Swamp King (The Wilderking Trilogy #2)

The Way of the Wilderking (The Wilderking Trilogy #3)

The World According to Narnia: Christian Meaning in C. S. Lewis's Beloved Chronicles

The Terrible Speed of Mercy: A Spiritual Biography of Flannery O'Connor

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