If I Ran the Circus (by Dr. Seuss)

No child can possibly escape being spellbound by the sensational Circus McGurkus, Dr. Seuss's testament to the youthful imagination. The melodious verse, the bizarre creatures, the fabulous feats of Sneelock--here is the Seuss world at its most transporting and most welcoming, with fantasy given free rein.

This two-handed salute to creative thinking is absolutely afire. With a dazzling array of fey Seuss animals and verse worth setting to music -- a classroom full of 5-year-olds swayed to the cadences of the rhyme -- no interest will be caught flagging. The names Seuss has bestowed on his animals -- the Zoom-a-Zoop Troupe from West Upper Ben-Deezing, the Harp-Twanging Snarp, the Juggling Jot, which juggles twenty-two question marks -- are among his very finest. The sense of being right there under the big top is tangible: You can almost hear the calliope over the Seussian din.

Mr. Sneelock pretty much steals the show, puffing away on his pipe, his eyelids down as if he's in a doze. He starts as a drink vendor, moves up to be a fall guy for various animal acts, then takes to the center ring in a series of death-defying feats.