The Circus Ship (by Chris Van Dusen)

Illustrator and author Chris Van Dusen loosely bases his story on a 1836 incident in which a boat carrying a circus went down in flames off the coast of Maine. In Van Dusen’s tale, the ship founders in a storm. Mr. Paine, the circus owner, saves himself and leaves behind his animals, who desperately swim to an island in Maine. The villagers at first are annoyed by the strange arrivals. But once a tiger -- reverting to his training -- leaps into a burning building to save a girl, the people befriend the animals. When Mr. Paine comes charging back to retrieve his animals, the villagers vow to keep him from taking any of them.

There’s no shortage of bad guys in children’s stories, of course, but Mr. Paine is a little over the top in a story that feels contrived. Young kids -- for whom, typically, a circus is a source of delight rather than disgust -- may very well be taken aback by the sheer awfulness of this frightening grown-up bully. He hurls himself about the story, red-faced and corpulent, overwhelming the lighthearted touches. The rhyming text moves along easily enough, but the big twists in the plot -- the heroic tiger, and the sudden return of Mr. Paine -- are dispatched in a rush.
The idea of these strange animals stumbling ashore in 19th-century Maine is intrinsically fun, and Van Dusen offers some delightful scenes. One of the best moments is a simple hidden pictures-style two-page spread in which the 15 circus animals are disguised around the town: a camel as a haystack, an ostrich as a tree, and so on. Mr. Paine scratches his head in frustration, but kids will delight in finding each animal.

So brightly colored they veer toward gaudy, the best illustrations invite kids to explore the ways the circus animals have become part of village life.

Author: Chris Van Dusen
Illustrator: Chris Van Dusen
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Publication date: September 22, 2009
Number of pages: 40
Hardcover price: $16.99
Read Aloud: 5
Read Alone: 6