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COUSINS AND CIRCUSES by Lucy Johnston Sypher

COUSINS AND CIRCUSES

By

Pub Date: March 20th, 1974
Publisher: Atheneum

The three city-bred preacher's daughters, Gwen, Gwin and Guinnie Owens, just about convince Lucy that Wales, North Dakota out there on The Edge of Nowhere (KR, 1973) is really a ""rough, wicked little town."" Lucy's fears grow as a neighbor boy dies while the town doctor is home drunk, the local ""blind pig"" is raided, and Lucy has to help the raid's only (innocent) victim escape to Canada. Even the family circus organized to bring the warring girls' and boys' clubs together ends in stink-bomb explosions and generalized mayhem, and it takes a four-day, 500 mile auto trip to Mother's civilized Minneapolis relatives to convince Lucy that Wales has its merits after all. Author Lucy's memories are as sharp as her capacity for invention is small and the ongoing amusements of backyard cave and clubhouse combined with the excitement of traveling by car before the era of tubeless tires, well marked highways and Howard Johnsons makes childhood in Wales seem enviable indeed.