NCW Libraries

Brash young parrot Cuco gets bored with his family's bird circus and tries to spice up the act. But when Cuco's acrobat father Gayo gets hurt, rival bully bird Martin swoops in to take over the show. So, Cuco heads for Hollywood, hoping to learn daring action stunts from TV star El Americano.

"Busy Betty has always been busy. Every day she wakes up with a million questions and a billion ideas! And today she has an amazing idea: she's throwing her mom a birthday party. Shhh... It's a surprise! Then Betty and her best friend, Mae, have the best idea of all: What if they threw Mom a circus surprise party?! It will be the greatest day in the history of the universe! Everything is perfect until Betty realizes oh, no! Mom's birthday isn't today...it's...

Simple text and illustrations on a circus theme introduce the alphabet.

Circus owner Max Medici enlists former star Holt Farrier and his children to care for a newborn elephant whose oversized ears make him a laughingstock in an already struggling circus. But when they discover that Dumbo can fly, the circus makes an incredible comeback, attracting entrepreneur V.A. Vandevere, who recruits the Dumbo for his newest entertainment venture, Dreamland. Dumbo soars to new heights until Holt learns that beneath its shiny veneer,...

The first comprehensive 'biography' of one of the first celebrity animals who gave us one of our favourite words. Jumbo, Victorian England's favourite elephant, was born in 1861 in French Sudan, imported to a Parisian zoo and later sold on to London, where – for seventeen years – he dutifully gave children rides and ate buns from their hands, all the while being tortured at night to keep him docile. Worldwide fame came when he was bought by the...

The nineteenth century was the golden age of the circus in Ohio. Before the Ringling brothers became synonymous with the American circus, Cincinnati's John Robinson and the Sells brothers of Columbus wowed audiences with stunning equestrian feats and aerial exploits. For good measure, the Sells brothers threw in a sharpshooting show with a young Ohio woman by the name of Annie Oakley. The Walter L. Main Circus of Geneva and a number of smaller shows...

William L. Slout, circus historian par excellence, here provides six essays on the development of the American circus. "From Rags to Ricketts: The Roots of Circus in Early Gotham" looks at the beginnings of circus entertainment in old New York City during the eighteenth century. "The Great Roman Hippodrome of 1874: P. T. Barnum's 'Crowning Effort'" describes the great showman's grand experiment: the collection and display in the Big Apple of the "largest...

"Nucci" is fiction fueled by fact. A coming-of-age saga across generations. His story and vintage photos place you inside his world of thrills and secrets-an insider's story of triumphs and betrayals-with an ending to surprise you more than once. Nucci's family, the Loyal Repenskys, is a celebrated troupe of equestrian bareback riders brought to America in 1933. Their stories include encounters with Hitler's Sturmabteilung-Stormtroopers-in Berlin...

"An unlikely-and entirely unforgettable-tale of a most unusual friendship between Flora, an elephant calf stolen from her African home, and David, the circus impresario and magician, who adopts, trains, and ultimately liberates her in a tale freely inspired by actual events"--

Sonora Carver was an American entertainer, most notable as one of the first female horse divers. Carver answered an ad placed by "Doc" William Frank Carver in 1923 for a diving girl and soon earned a place in circus history. Her job was to mount a running horse as it reached the top of a forty-foot (sometimes sixty-foot) tower and sail down along the animal's back as it plunged into a deep pool of water directly below. Sonora was a sensation and soon...