{"id":40489,"date":"2021-11-28T00:48:06","date_gmt":"2021-11-28T04:48:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=40489"},"modified":"2021-11-28T00:51:42","modified_gmt":"2021-11-28T04:51:42","slug":"review-of-long-road-to-the-circus-by-betsy-bird-illustrations-by-david-small","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=40489","title":{"rendered":"Review of Long Road to the Circus, by Betsy Bird, illustrations by David Small"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Long Road to the Circus<\/em><\/p>\n

by Betsy Bird
\nillustrations by David Small<\/p>\n

Alfred A. Knopf, 2021. 246 pages.
\nReview written November 27, 2021, from a library book
\nStarred Review<\/p>\n

What a delightful book! Set in 1920 in Burr Oak, Michigan, twelve-year-old Suzy of the legendary grip wants to find a way to escape the family farm and Burr Oak, where generations of her family always seem to come back.<\/p>\n

When Suzy decides to follow no-good lazy Uncle Fred before dawn to find out what he\u2019s up to, she\u2019s surprised to discover he\u2019s wrangling ostriches for a retired circus performer. They want to tire out the ostrich so it can be harnessed up to a surrey together with a horse for the town parade.<\/p>\n

Then Suzy gets the bright idea that if she rides the ostrich instead of Uncle Fred, her boring summer will get a whole lot more interesting \u2013 and she can learn a skill that might get her out of town. Not every kid can ride an ostrich!<\/p>\n

But it takes some negotiating and some clever planning to keep her parents allowing her to miss the morning chores. If they find out what she\u2019s up to, she might even have to enlist the aid of her annoying older brother.<\/p>\n

Here are some words from Suzy as she\u2019s planning to follow Uncle Fred in the morning:<\/p>\n

It takes true skill to delay doing your chores. And my impatient brother Bill simply had no idea how to do it right. He usually tried to skip out after breakfast to run and play with the baby lambs or the goats or whatever it was he wasn\u2019t supposed to be doing. But if Bill had taken pointers from Uncle Fred, like I did, he would have realized that the first rule of chore skipping is to skip breakfast too. \u2018Cause once they\u2019ve seen your face and weighed you down with food, you\u2019re less fleet of foot. They\u2019ll catch you before you can take two steps outdoors.<\/p>\n

The second rule is to offer complete and utter bafflement when confronted. When Bill got collared in an attempted escape, he always just lied outright. I\u2019d shake my head in wonder as he constructed some fabulous falsehood to cover up his crime, making it far worse for himself the further in he went. Uncle Fred took a much smarter tack. Whenever he\u2019d return from wherever it was he\u2019d been and my daddy started asking where he\u2019d gone, Uncle Fred would have this look of complete bafflement on his face. Like he\u2019d never even grown up on a farm or known how it worked. He\u2019d offer some bland apologies to Daddy for inconveniencing him, then join everyone for lunch. Usually after that he\u2019d go to work with the rest of the crew, working longer than the rest of them to make up his lost time, but next morning it would start all over again. He\u2019d be gone before breakfast, Daddy swearing under his breath, the rest of us pretending not to notice, most of all Uncle Fred\u2019s wife and baby.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Suzy\u2019s irrepressible spirit and determination come through on every page, and it doesn\u2019t take us long to be sure she\u2019ll figure out how to ride an ostrich and also how to use that to ride away from Burr Oak some day.<\/p>\n

David Small\u2019s illustration style is perfect for gangly ostriches and add wonderfully to the spirit of the book. The page where Suzy first tries to ride an ostrich is especially delightful.<\/p>\n

The back story of this book \u2013 appropriately told at the back \u2013 is also rather wonderful. Betsy Bird had a family story about her grandmother\u2019s no-good uncle who skipped out on farm chores in Burr Oak, Michigan to visit a retired circus performer and learn tricks to teach the farm horses. That circus performer, Madame Marantette \u2013 who shows up in this book – really did set a world record by driving a surrey pulled by an ostrich and a horse together.<\/p>\n

But the really crazy part of the back story is that illustrator David Small currently lives in the very same house where Madame Marantette lived and kept her horses and ostriches. When Betsy told him about her project, he thought it wasn\u2019t so much a picture book as a novel, and we are all in his debt.<\/p>\n

This book reads as a wonderful yarn about a girl looking to do outrageous things to make a name for herself. The fact that there\u2019s a kernel of truth at its core makes it all the more fun.<\/p>\n

Fuse Eight blog<\/a>
\ndavidsmallbooks.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Buy from Amazon.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Find this review on Sonderbooks<\/a> at: www.sonderbooks.com\/Childrens_Fiction\/long_road_to_the_circus.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.<\/p>\n

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.<\/p>\n

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