Museum of Extraordinary Things by Alice Hoffman (2014)

Another amazing book by Alice Hoffman. I couldn't place her until I realized that she had written The Dovekeepers, a very heavy book from Jewish history. This too was about Jewish history, but a bit more recent and on this continent. 

This is an interesting glimpse into early 20th century New York City - Manhattan and Coney Island. I knew Coney Island more as a place my parents use to go in the 50's. I think I took a train out there once with a friend, or maybe it was Rockaway Park, a bit further east. I knew there was an amusement park there, but never knew the history. In 1911, the Museum of Extraordinary Things was a small private museum providing entertainment next to Dreamland - the huge growing amusement park. The extraordinary things are anomalies of nature - animals with two heads or different coloring, skeletons, bodies of malformities in glass jars,  etc. And there are extraordinary humans - man with hair all over his body, a girl without arms, etc. I know I have read about these unfortunate people being able to make a living only by showing off their extraordinary features, but I hope that most can live more normal lives today, with the help of modern medicine and changing attitudes. At county fairs you can still see huge animals or maybe even some deformed animals, but I hope that humans are no longer showed off in that way. 

Coralee lives in this house/museum with her father, who is training her to use her anomaly of webbed fingers to pretend to be a mermaid of sorts. She is a good swimmer and learns to tolerate cold water. [Sorry I never finished the description, but I would rather have this up as is.]