Big-Top Circus

Children's Literature - Rae Valabek

The photographs taken by the author tell the story of a tent circus. While the text may be difficult for young readers, the pictures are excellent and informative. Middle elementary school students could read this book with ease and garner many facts about circus life.

School Library Journal

Gr 3-5-A brief history of the circus from its 18th-century British origins to the present day precedes this colorfully illustrated narrative that covers all aspects of this unique form of entertainment. A combination of long shots and closeups depicts the set-up operation by humans and animals. Lives of the performers and their children, in and out of the circus ring, are captured pictorially and described in the text. Sprinkled throughout are italicized terms that are defined contextually. Any reader who has tried to photograph an object or a person in motion will quickly appreciate Johnson's clear full-color photographs of big-top performers in action. This title will delight and inform young audiences.-Nancy E. Curran, Decatur Public Schools, IL

Mary Harris Veeder

Concentrating on a show with tents rather than the more familiar stadium event many kids attend, Johnson follows the circus from set up through performance. The pictures will attract young children, but the book is actually most distinctive because it introduces and explains the technical names for circus events and people--the clown walkaround, the windjammers, the elephant long mount. Johnson's attention to how circus animals are treated is another feature that will interest children of the 1990s