Let me start out by saying the circuses give me the willies. That said, I also have to admit that I find them fascinating. So, when I saw the cover of this new alphabet book, I was suckered in, exactly the way that P.T. Barnum would have hoped.
Just as advertised, the information is amazing, bizarre and celebrated. In a mere one or two sentences per page, we learn that the phrase “hold your horses”—one of my father’s favorites—came from trying to get the circus parade through a town without a traffic mishap. Under bizarre, there are descriptions of weird novelty acts involving strength, agility or just plain foolhardiness—not to mention the “Fiji Mermaid”. Then there’s the celebrated Jumbo, the famous six and a half ton elephant whose name has become synonymous with the word huge.
But, just like Barnum and his ilk, I don’t want to give too much away, so I’ll simply say, “come one, come all” to one of the greatest new books on our library shelves.
Posted by: Eileen
