Items related to When the Circus Came to Town
A hilarious satire on small-town prejudice
It all started with the Halibuts. Then came Elmira Degoochy the snake lady. Then the Flying Gambinis -- all seven of them and their mother. And Mrs. Harrison the fortune-teller, and Mr. Wydel the strongman . . .
These are the new residents of Springfield, the formerly peaceful Midwestern town where up to now young Ivy's life had been pretty uneventful. Ivy becomes fast friends with Alfred Halibut, who is an aspiring writer like herself and the son of a circus publicity manager. She also befriends the other circus people who have moved into town. But many of her neighbors are not feeling kindly about this invasion of strange characters. Tensions somersault into a climactic tangle at the Springfield bake-off. In the midst of hurtling pies, one voice alone can bring peace and tolerance back to the community. When the Circus Came to Town is Polly Horvath's funniest novel to date, packed with vivid exaggeration and slapstick scenarios.
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Polly Horvath is the author of many books for young people, including Everything on a Waffle, The Pepins and Their Problems, The Canning Season and The Trolls. Her numerous awards include the Newbery Honor, the National Book Award for Young People's Literature, the Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor, the Vicky Metcalf Award for Children's Literature, the Mr. Christie Award, the International White Raven, and the Young Adult Canadian Book of the Year. Horvath grew up in Kalamazoo, Michigan. She attended the Canadian College of Dance in Toronto and the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance in New York City. She has taught ballet, waitressed, done temporary typing, and tended babies, but while doing these things she has always also written. Now that her children are in school, she spends the whole day writing, unless she sneaks out to buy groceries, lured away from her desk by the thought of fresh Cheez Whiz. She lives on Vancouver Island with her husband and two daughters.
Gr. 5^-8. In this wacky, offbeat novel that uses humor to expose the irrationality of prejudice, Horvath combines raucous slapstick with sharp, dry comedy. A small, quiet town becomes divided when some circus folk set down roots--and, heaven forbid, decide to enter baked goods in the town's annual bake sale. Fifth-grader Ivy, pompous and manipulative, loyal and tough, and much too wise for her years, narrates the goings-on, including her own role in the turmoil. The humor occasionally seems to run counter to the story's message (When Ivy discovers that the Flying Gambinis are coming to town, she asks, "Are they going to break our legs with tire irons?"), and some of the references and jokes will fly right over the heads of middle-graders ("These things have to be done del-i-cate-ly," said my mother, cackling"), limiting the readership. But Horvath's characters are a colorful, winning lot, and her comic approach helps make this a readable selection for prompting discussion of a serious subject. Stephanie Zvirin
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- PublisherFarrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
- Publication date1999
- ISBN 10 0374483671
- ISBN 13 9780374483678
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages144
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