Water for Elephants Resources: Related Teen Books
A List of Books about Carnivals & the Circus
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Adamson, Lydia. Dr. Nightingale Rides the Elephant (1994)
When an elephant goes berserk and kills a beautiful dancer in a small circus, veterinarian Deirdre Nightingale is convinced that someone tampered with the animal and sets out to find the culprit before the "rogue" elephant can be destroyed. (book jacket)
Almond, David. Secret Heart (2002)
Joe Maloney is out of place in this world. His mother wants him to be a man, and he can’t be that yet. His only friend, Stanny Mole, wants to teach him how to kill, and Joe can’t learn that. Joe’s mind is always somewhere else: on the weird creatures he sees in the distant sky, the songs he hears in the air around him, the vibrations of life he feels everywhere. Everybody laughs at Joe Maloney. And then a tattered circus comes to town, and a tiger comes for him. It leads him out into the night … (book jacket)
Andronik, Catherine M. Prince of Humbugs: The Life of P.T. Barnum (1994)
A lively, informative biography of the great 19th-century showman who dubbed himself the Prince of Humbugs. Most readers will associate his name with the Barnum and Bailey Circus, but that venture was preceded by a long life of selling and promoting. (School Library Journal)
Bradbury, Ray. Something Wicked This Way Comes (first published, 1962 – description about 2006 Gollancz edition)
This is a memorable story of two boys, James Nightshade and William Halloway, and the evil that grips their small Midwestern town with the arrival of a "dark carnival" one Autumn midnight. How these two innocents, both age 13, save the souls of the town (as well as their own), makes for compelling reading on timeless themes. What would you do if your secret wishes could be granted by the mysterious ringmaster Mr. Dark? (Amazon.com)
Corder, Zizou. Lionboy (2004)
In the near future, a boy with the ability to speak the language of cats sets out from London to seek his kidnapped parents and finds himself on a Paris-bound circus ship learning to train lions. (OSL catalog summary)
Davies, Robertson. World of Wonders (1976)
Magnus Eisengrim—the most illustrious magician of his age—is spirited away from his home by a member of a traveling sideshow, the Wanless World of Wonders. After honing his skills and becoming better known, Magnus unfurls his life’s courageous and adventurous tale in this third and final volume of a spectacular, soaring work. (book jacket)
Davis, Amanda. Wonder When You’ll Miss Me (2003)
Feeling invisible is only one problem for 16-year-old Faith Duckle. She joins the small traveling Fartlesworth Circus, where she cleans up after elephants and horses and gradually detaches herself from the haunting fat girl who delights in dogging her every move. Her new identity, Annabelle Cabinet, revels in the spangled sawdust world of performing acrobats, animals, clowns and freaks, and begins to heal. (Publishers Weekly)
Dieguez, Sharlee. The Bearded Lady (1999)
Tweets and Jessie Foster are orphaned sisters in early 20th-century rural Georgia who, thrown out of the house by their loathsome aunt, are taken in by kindly circus folk. Enchanted by the "freaks, misfits and managerial conjurers," the sisters are determined to survive by attaching themselves to the troupe. (Publisher’s Weekly)
Fleming, Alice Mulcahey. P. T. Barnum: The World's Greatest Showman (1993) Non Fiction
A biography of the showman who created a three-ring circus known as "the greatest show on earth" and sponsored such notables as Tom Thumb, Jenny Lind, and Jumbo, the elephant. (OSL catalog summary)
Fox, Charles Philip, ed. American Circus Posters (1978) Non Fiction
Here collected together for the first time are 48 large, full-color, rare posters, 1890s-1940s, superbly reproduced from originals. Printed in extra large format so that even small details can be clearly seen, the posters feature many of the greats of the American circus: acrobats, clowns, Gargantua, etc., from Ringling Bros., Barnum & Bailey, Sparks, more. (book jacket)
Helfer, Ralph. Modoc: The True Story of the Greatest Elephant That Ever Lived (1997) Non Fiction
Modoc is the joint biography of a man and an elephant born in a small German circus town on the same day in 1896. Bram was the son of an elephant trainer, Modoc the daughter of his prize performer. The boy and animal grew up devoted to each other. When the Wunderzircus was sold to an American, with no provision to take along the human staff, Bram stowed away on the ship to prevent being separated from his beloved Modoc. (Amazon.com)
Hunnicutt, Ellen. Suite for Calliope (1989)
After Ada Cunningham, a handicapped teenager, is driven to flee an avenging aunt, she hides in dark bars and seedy lodgings until she comes to the winter home of a circus, where life and death, art and reality vie for survival. (Library Journal)
Janeczko, Paul B. Worlds Afire (2004) Non Fiction
Based on a real circus fire in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1944 that killed 167 in a few minutes and injured more than 500, Janeczko's spare poetic novel describes the events in the voices of 29 eyewitnesses: children and adults in the audience, circus folk, and townspeople. (Booklist)
Jones, Diana Wynne. Cart & Cwidder (Dalemark Quartet, Vol. 1) (2001)
In this fantasy adventure set in mystical Dalemark, the children of a murdered gypsy begin an investigation into their father's death that has far-reaching consequences. (Publishers Weekly)
Knaebel, Nathaniel. Step Right Up: Stories of Carnivals, Sideshows, and the Circus (2004)
Step Right Up is a one-of-a-kind anthology that collects the finest literature and the most absorbing first-person accounts about carnivals, sideshows, and the circus, capturing all of the spectacle and sensation of this unusual and treasured tradition. A colorful assortment of characters populate the fairgrounds and circus tents of this unique collection from circus legends like P. T. Barnum and Otis Jordan the Frog Prince to a motley crew of ride monkeys and rubes. (book jacket)
Koontz, Dean. Twilight Eyes (1983)
The carnival is coming to town-and it's like nothing you've ever seen. Over the years his quest to destroy as many Goblins as possible has become an obsession. It is that obsession that eventually leads him into one particular carnival. There he meets the disfigured strong man Joel Truck who can also see the Goblins, and the beautiful Rya who becomes the love of Slim's life. Now together the three must fight to stop the Goblins before it is too late! (book jacket)
Lawrence, Iain. Ghost Boy (2000)
Harold Kline is an albino -- an outcast. Folks stare and taunt, calling him Ghost Boy. It's been that way all of his 14 years. So when the circus comes to town, Harold runs off to join it. (book jacket)
McCaughrean, Geraldine. The kite rider: A Novel (2002)
In thirteenth-century China, after trying to save his widowed mother from a horrendous second marriage, twelve-year-old Haoyou has life-changing adventures when he takes to the sky as a circus kite rider and ends up meeting the great Mongol ruler Kublai Khan. (OSL catalog summary)
Mack, Tracy. The fall of the Amazing Zalindas (2006)
When the tightrope artists the Amazing Zalindas fall to their deaths, Sherlock Holmes suspects foul play and enlists the youthful "street sleuths," who find ties between the deaths and a valuable stolen book. (Booklist)
Maxwell, Katie. Circus of the darned (2005)
Fran, who has psychic abilities and travels throughout Europe with her mother and circus friends, is looking forward to her first date with Ben, a vampire who insists she is his Beloved. Their first date is interrupted however when Ben not only goes missing, but Fran unwittingly summons a band of Viking ghosts who love to pillage and think she's a goddess needing help battling the god Loki. (OSL catalog summary)
Murray, Martine. The Slightly True Story of Cedar B. Hartley (who planned to live an unusual life) (2003)
Australian Cedar Hartley and her new friend, the son of circus performers, plan a neighborhood circus. Twelve-year-old Cedar, a narrator with a fresh, funny voice, also slowly solves two family mysteries. (book jacket)
Norton, Andre and Lyn McConchie. Beast Master's Circus (2004)
Laris, an orphan and hardworking refugee, loves the creatures she cares for as much as she hates Dedran, who "owns" her until she can earn enough credits to buy her freedom. Fortunately, on the space-traveling freighter The Queen of the Circus and during its stops on various planets, she develops a special telepathic bond with Prauo, a big alien cat who joins her, along with Cregar, another unhappy circus employee, in trying to thwart Dedran's nefarious plan to assist fellow Thieves Guild Members in stealing and cloning gifted beasts. This big top of the future includes illegally obtained "tigerbats" and rare Terran dogs, as well as two humorous crooks, Ideena and Baris. (Publishers Weekly)
O’Nan, Stewart. The Circus Fire: A True Story (2000) Non Fiction
As some 9,000 people watched the Wallendas begin their high-wire act on July 6, 1944, a fire started on the sidewall of the big top at the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus. The tent had been waterproofed with a mixture of 6,000 gallons of white gasoline and 18,000 pounds of paraffin; common practice for circuses at the time. In minutes, the entire tent was engulfed in flames. In the rush for the exits, people were trampled and burned--some beyond recognition. In the end, 167 were dead and 487 injured, of whom 140 required hospitalization. The city of Hartford, Connecticut, would never be the same. (Amazon.com)
Priest, Christopher. The Prestige (2005)
The Washington Post called this "a dizzying magic show of a novel, chock-a-block with all the props of Victorian sensation fiction: séances, multiple narrators, a family curse, doubles, a lost notebook, wraiths, and disembodied spirits; a haunted house, awesome mad-doctor machinery, a mausoleum, and ghoulish horrors; a misunderstood scientist, impossible disappearances; the sins of the fathers visited upon their descendants." (Amazon.com)
Sloan, Mark and F. W. Glasier. Wild, Weird, and Wonderful: The American Circus 1901-1927 (2002) Non Fiction
So here in this 10-by-11-inch album, we see people milling before the sideshow tent, already marveling at one of the "freaks" playing a violin; elephants lining up after unloading from the circus train; roustabouts driving tent stakes; and an eight-horse team pulling an ornately carved wagon in a small-town parade. Most astonishing is an image worthy of modern sports photography: Alexander Patty of the Ringling Brothers Circus caught between stairs as he does his stuff--hopping downstairs on his head! Hur-ry, hur-ry, and don't be ashamed to gawk. (Booklist)
In a world turned upside down by tragedy, Nell Stroud, fresh out of Oxford University, ran away to the circus. Constantly moving from town to town, surrounded by trapeze artists and clowns, grooms, and third-generation show people, she immersed herself in their hard, marginalized, miraculous lives. And gradually that world became more real to her than the one she had left behind. Josser is her story and theirs. (book jacket)
Wallace, Karen. The unrivalled Spangles (2006)
"The Amazing Scarletta Sisters," 16-year-old Ellen Spangle and her 14-year-old sister, Lucy, are the undisputed equestrienne stars of their father's circus. But both girls harbor secrets that may destroy their success. Lucy has fallen in love with the son of a rival circus owner, while Ellen has secretly been continuing her education with a private tutor. (Booklist)
Wilkins, Charles. The Circus at the Edge of the Earth: Travels with the Great Wallenda Circus (1998), Non Fiction
In a narrative that is by turns funny, informative and poignant, Wilkins chronicles a month on the road in his native Canada with the Great Wallenda Circus in the spring of 1997 and, in the process, offers remarkable insight into a subcultureAthe diverse assortment of gymnasts, animal trainers, daredevils and wanderers who identify themselves as circus folkAthat is slowly disappearing from public consciousness. (Publishers Weekly)
Resource Archive for past RARI selections