The nice people at Publishers Weekly gave The Charlatan’s Boy a favorable review in their September 13 issue. You can get your own signed copy (of the book, not the review) here.
Here’s that notice from Publishers Weekly:
A couple of misfits get more than they bargain for in this comical fantasy. The peddler Floyd exploits his deformed charge, Grady, so that they can both get by in the land of Corenwald. Money is hard to come by, so they capitalize on the legend of ‘feechies’–with Grady pretending to be one of the mythical swamp dwellers–to ensure their financial stability (‘Wasn’t we a pair? Floyd made his living by telling lies, and I made mine by being ugly. It wasn’t a bad living, either,’ says Grady). That scheme is just one of many for Floyd and Grady, and as they travel from village to village dabbling in phrenology, miracle cures, and more, Grady learns much about human nature–and himself. Rogers (the Wilder-king trilogy) crafts an entertaining middle-grade novel filled with hijinks and madcap characters. Suffused with backwoods vernacular, Grady’s first-person narration should engage readers from the start and hold their attention as Grady navigates his life’s surprising twists and turns with humility and humor. One final twist gives Grady a much-deserved happy ending. Ages 10 — up. (Oct.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Aaron Roughton
Wonderful writeup! My mom is coming to town and she asked if I had any more books for her to read. I told her she could start Charlatan’s Boy while she was here, but she’d have to order her own dern copy if she wanted one back in Florida.
Jonathan Rogers
That’s the spirit, Aaron. You can’t let your mother come in and take books willy-nilly…after all you’ve done for her. It’s nice to see somebody willing to stand up to his mother.