It’s a fine friendship story but not a great one.
A boy attends circus school to learn enough to save his family’s circus.
Twelve-year-old Sebastian Kostantinov, only son of ringmaster Dragan Kostantinov, seemingly has no circus talent at all—he can’t juggle, ride unicycles, do acrobatics, or swing on a trapeze. He can’t even manage to be a clown. He cares for the circus animals while they tour Eastern Europe until business falls off and the animals must be sold. Animals are old-school; newer circuses don’t have them. Despite his lack of talent, Seb worms his way into an exclusive Montreal circus school in hopes that he can learn enough to put the family back in the black. He makes friends with two other misfits, Frankie, an Italian parkour specialist, and Banjo, a rustic slackliner. But the circus school itself is in financial straits and seems likely to close—so Seb and his friends plot to save it. Delaney writes smoothly, but her plot has some gaping holes. If the prestigious school carries a waitlist, why not admit more pupils who can pay full tuition? Instead they admit Seb on full scholarship with the odd hope that his presumably wealthy father will become a big donor. The boarding school scenes tread very familiar ground, and the circus acts never quite come alive. The principal cast appears to be white, and the school is not a notably diverse one.
It’s a fine friendship story but not a great one. (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: May 2, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-14-319850-5
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Puffin/Penguin Random House Canada
Review Posted Online: March 5, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2017
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often...
A successful juvenile by the beloved New Yorker writer portrays a farm episode with an imaginative twist that makes a poignant, humorous story of a pig, a spider and a little girl.
Young Fern Arable pleads for the life of runt piglet Wilbur and gets her father to sell him to a neighbor, Mr. Zuckerman. Daily, Fern visits the Zuckermans to sit and muse with Wilbur and with the clever pen spider Charlotte, who befriends him when he is lonely and downcast. At the news of Wilbur's forthcoming slaughter, campaigning Charlotte, to the astonishment of people for miles around, spins words in her web. "Some Pig" comes first. Then "Terrific"—then "Radiant". The last word, when Wilbur is about to win a show prize and Charlotte is about to die from building her egg sac, is "Humble". And as the wonderful Charlotte does die, the sadness is tempered by the promise of more spiders next spring.
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often informative as amusing, and the whole tenor of appealing wit and pathos will make fine entertainment for reading aloud, too.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 1952
ISBN: 978-0-06-026385-0
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1952
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
Fast-paced and plot-driven.
In his latest, prolific author Gratz takes on Hitler’s Olympic Games.
When 13-year-old American gymnast Evie Harris arrives in Berlin to compete in the 1936 Olympic Games, she has one goal: stardom. If she can bring home a gold medal like her friend, the famous equestrian-turned-Hollywood-star Mary Brooks, she might be able to lift her family out of their Dust Bowl poverty. But someone slips a strange note under Evie’s door, and soon she’s dodging Heinz Fischer, the Hitler Youth member assigned to host her, and meeting strangers who want to make use of her gymnastic skills—to rob a bank. As the games progress, Evie begins to see the moral issues behind their sparkling facade—the antisemitism and racism inherent in Nazi ideology and the way Hitler is using the competition to support and promote these beliefs. And she also agrees to rob the bank. Gratz goes big on the Mission Impossible–style heist, which takes center stage over the actual competitions, other than Jesse Owens’ famous long jump. A lengthy and detailed author’s note provides valuable historical context, including places where Gratz adapted the facts for storytelling purposes (although there’s no mention of the fact that before 1952, Olympic equestrian sports were limited to male military officers). With an emphasis on the plot, many of the characters feel defined primarily by how they’re suffering under the Nazis, such as the fictional diver Ursula Diop, who was involuntarily sterilized for being biracial.
Fast-paced and plot-driven. (Historical fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9781338736106
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2025
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