shighley 's review for:

Circus Mirandus by Cassie Beasley
4.0

This is a book that I'd heard so much about that I worried it would not live up to the hype. I would give it 4.5. Beasley sets up an imaginative world, and I really liked the characters of Micah, Ephraim, and Jenny (and detested Gertrude) "Chintzy" was one of my mom's favorite words; who knew it would be a bird? Things really picked up in the last hundred pages. I could see this as a read aloud, with many opportunities for prediction (although I can say, I wasn't surprised by the ending)

There are some larger, overarching messages in the book; selflessness, relationships. It would be interesting to ask students what would be in their Circus Mirandus.