Welcome to another instalment in the ‘time-travelling bookworm’ series! The random generator has landed on Zarconi’s Magic Flying Fish by Kirsty Murray.
I read this middle grade children’s book in May 2002, so I think I can be forgiven for not remembering it at all. However, when I looked it up online, I remembered the cover! I would have borrowed it from the library. Here’s the blurb:
Before he came to Zarconi’s, Gus didn’t even know he had grandparents, let alone ones who juggled knives and ate fire. Now he’s caught up in their world of magicians, stilt-walkers, tattooed tenthands, elephant turds – and there’s a snake-girl who might become his best friend or his worst enemy. But why is everyone so secretive about Gus’s family? Why won’t they let him on the trapeze? Is it true that Zarconi’s is cursed?
A fast-moving story of discovery, change and identity with all the drama of life under the big top.
Australian author Kirsty Murray has a rather nice website and I can see she has written a lot since this book.
Catch up with the other posts in this series: Voyage in the Dark by Jean Rhys, The Yearbook by Peter Lerangis, Red Velvet by Carol Hedges, The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham.