The Museum of Extraordinary Things by Alice Hoffman
Coralie Sardie thrills the masses at The Museum of Extraordinary Things on the 1911 Coney Island boardwalk. She appears as the Mermaid, alongside the Wolfman, the Butterfly Girl and a one-hundred-year-old turtle. Her hands are webbed and she can swim with speed and ease; her father, "the Professor," trained her to use a special breathing device so she could spend an hour or more underwater in an ice-filled tub. Thanks to a believable tail and some carefully applied paint, Coralie's evening swims up and down the Hudson generate rumors of a monster. One night, as she rests along the northern shore of the river, she spies Eddie Cohen, a dashing Russian immigrant runaway taking pictures in the moonlight. Eddie photographs the devastation following the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire and becomes tied up in the mystery behind a missing young woman. His quest entangles him with Coralie and The Museum of Extraordinary Things unfolds with Hoffman's magic and horror in a rapidly changing city full of lies, bootleggers, thugs and idealists. Jacki @ Central