Alice Hoffman
Scribner 2014
Genre: Adventure,
Fiction
The Museum of Extraordinary Things is a Coney Island boardwalk attraction run by “Professor Sardie”. He lives above the museum with his daughter Coralie. Coralie has always wanted to see the museum, but her father won’t let her go down until she is ten. She was born with a very unusual feature webbed fingers. She has to wear white cotton gloves outside. Her father makes her take cold baths and practice swimming every day. She holds her breath for a very long time. On her tenth birthday she finally gets to go down and see the museum. She marvels at all of the sights, and looks at all of the attractions. When she reaches the end she sees a huge glass tank filled with water. She understands that this is for her, and she will be an attraction. She becomes the human mermaid with a bamboo tail covered with silk. As she grows older she swims every night in the river, she is so fast and can stay under for so long just like a fish. People start to think there is a monster in the river. On one of her night swims, she sees a young man and her life is changed forever.
I suggested this one for my short lived book club, and a
few people felt that it looked scary. Let me say that the only thing scary in
this book were the evils of man. The “freaks” were not scary. I ended up
finding these were the stars of the story. You loved them and were rooting for
them in the end.
This was such a beautifully written book. Beautiful
words, beautiful characters, it was a sad beauty too. I really love mermaids. I
was a water baby (What my mom would say) or a water rat (what other swimmers
would say) so when I was a little girl I wanted to be a mermaid. So perhaps it
was attractive to just me. Seeing this girl be as close to a mermaid as you can
be.
This didn’t feel like a very romantic love story. It was
darker. Almost like a tragic love story. An old fashioned one. When I read up
on this book the word fairy-tale was thrown around a lot. I understand why
because it was like one of the old fairy-tales. Not the new ones, the sad ones where the
princess throws herself into the sea with grief. WOAH! Hold your horses. That
was NOT a spoiler. It was just an example. CALM DOWN – SHEESH. In the end I
really liked it and I think you will too.
My Verdict: Read it
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Who was your
favorite attraction? What did you think of this book?
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If you liked this, try:
Storied life of AJ Fikry
The Light Between Oceans
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