*2022 Moonbeam Silver Winner for Pre-Teen Fiction - Historical/Cultural*2023 Next Generation Indie Book Awards - Finalist Children's/Juvenile (Fiction)*2023 CIPA EVVY Silver Winner for Juvenile Fiction - Middle GradeIn 1930s America a young teen struggles to find his calling among his carnival family of human curiosities while outsiders try to destroy everything he loves.Among the freaks and misfits of Oliver Neil's Marvelous Carnival, thirteen-year-old Manny Dobra longs to find his place. Orphaned as a baby he's been raised by the bearded woman, the alligator man, and the Leprechaun Family. Manny is a skilled artist, but he lives in the shadow of his deceased father's own talent. A new summer of promise is soon spoiled by the arrival of Ron the bully and the Oldies - the Order of the Lions' Den - hellbent on wiping out all carnivals. Manny realizes that what he finds lovely and ordinary is considered grotesque and abominable to the outside world. With the help of his friends Nickel, Margot, and Penny, Manny begins to traverse the tricky road of life, finding his footing in a world of human curiosities, both the beautiful and the ugly.
Anthony Bartley Knihy
The journals of a Battle of Britain Pilot. Tony Bartley epitomised the young, dashing fighter pilot of the Battle of Britain. Born in Ireland but educated in England, he joined the RAF at the outbreak of war. He flew Spitfires with 92 Squadron from RAF Hornchurch, first in the battle of France, then covering the Dunkirk evacuation. Later in 1940 he moved to RAF Biggin hill and flew daily over London at the height of the Battle of Britain. Bartley went on to test-fly Spitfires, them led 65 Squadron, then 111 Squadron in North Africa and also flew with the American 9th Air Force covering the Normandy landings. His account relives the close atmosphere of close knit fighter squadrons and also the respite offered by the London social life. He met and married the actress Deborah Kerr and moved to Hollywood where he became a screen-writer and later a film company executive.