Thunderation and Toad's Toes!

How does one nearly thirteen-year-old Montana cowgirl get herself in so much trouble?

Maddie McDowell can't take it anymore. Running away from boarding school seems like her only choice after feeling betrayed by her family and left out and left alone by everyone else. When the Monte Decker Rodeo Show pulls out of town on the morning train, Maddie intends to be on it, leaving all her hurt behind.

All, however, does not go as planned.

Mistaken for the rodeo's newest star, who appears to be missing, Maddie must prove she's got the talent, skills, and guts to make it. But it's not that simple. There's the rodeo queen who hates her on sight, the handsome cowboy who seems strangely familiar, a mysterious man in a bowler hat, and a sack full of stolen cash. Is someone trying to hurt her, or the missing cowgirl she's impersonating?

Yep. Maddie is in deeper than a yearling calf in a sinkhole.

With all this trouble, Maddie must decide if the rodeo life is what she truly wants, or if there's something else missing, something even bigger pulling her along-not counting that dog, of course.

This rollicking Pinkerton-style middle grade mystery set in a 1919 rodeo show keeps the pages turning and the heartstrings pulling.