Paperback. Pub Date: 2011 Pages: 384 Publisher: Sandpiper Thirteen-year-old Natalie Minks loves machines. Particularly the automata algorithm-self-Operating Mechanical Devices. Usually powered by clockwork When Jake Limberleg and his traveling medicine show arrive in HER small Missouri town with a mysterious vehicle under a tarp and an uncanny ability to make Natalie's half-built automaton move. she feels in her gut that something about this caravan of healers is a bit off. Her uneasiness leads her to investigate the intricate maze of the medicine show. where she discovers a horrible truth and realizes that only she has the power to set things right. Set in 1914. The Boneshaker is a gripping. richly textured novel about family. community. courage. and looking evil directly in the face in order to conquer it.