Ephemia Rimaldi

"This middle--grade novel is about an irrepressible girl thrust into challenging circumstances. Her great-aunt Ada has died and a committee of relatives is bent on vulturing Ephemia's education trust fund for themselves. Twelve-year-old Effy's only hope is to locate and dazzle her long lost poppa before time runs out. But Phineas Rimaldi, the ringmaster of a traveling circus, seems an unlikely ally. Set on the eve of the 20th century, when female performers were one of the earliest groups to demand equal pay for equal work, this is an historical adventure about the suffragist movement and a feisty heroine who champions equality for all"--