Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

For a guy without a head, that Headless Horseman has a good one on his shoulders.

Ghost Circus by Adrienne Kress

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Okay, so my title is a little bit of a spoiler to what happens at the end of Ghost Circus by Adrienne Kress and illustrations by Jade Zhang. The Horseman shows up at the end, you think he’s a bad guy (like he usually is in stories) but he helps our heroes. I just couldn’t resist making a good (or bad depending on how you feel about it) pun. And I think you shouldn’t miss this graphic novel either. Both classical and modern elements make […]

And in the center ring…. Acrobats!

Addie and the Amazing Acrobats by Shauna Cagan

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Okay, so I like bats. I mean I am not learning everything I can about them, or anything like that, but I have read a little about them, like a good fiction story about them, wonder why they and vampires got together. But when I finished Addie and the Amazing Acrobats, I was also thinking, maybe raccoons should not be in a flying acrobatic group. You see, Shauna Cagan has these three bats, Addie, Ben, and Jude who fly and do amazing tricks (flips, flops, […]

“Whatever the hardships involved in being connected with it, this was the circus; and it was pure magic.”

Circus Doctor by J.Y. Henderson (as told to Richard Taplinger)

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CBR14Bingo: Elephant (there are a bunch of elephants in this book) Circus Doctor is, as its straight forward title suggests, an autobiography of a circus veterinarian. At the time he wrote this book, J.Y. Henderson had been working for Ringling for ten years, and from some cursory Googling it looks like he ended up working there for over forty. You can tell from the book how caring and passionate he is about caring for the vast variety of animals under his care, so it makes sense […]

An Informative Memoir by the King of Clowns

Grock: King of Clowns by Grock

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This was a pleasant read and Grock was a cheerful raconteur of his interesting life story. Grock was one of the most famous performers of his day, but as he himself writes, “Clowns too are soon forgotten.” I think the fact that clowning is an art best experienced live, combined with it not usually being recorded for posterity, leads to the progressive cultural memory loss of people like Grock, except by those with an intense knowledge of the field (there are videos of him that […]

“I still knew I was going to keep my lion and train him.”

Here, Keller -- Train This by George Keller

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Here Keller — Train This is about the life of George Keller, who yearned his whole life to become a lion/big cat trainer at the circus, but ended up being an art professor at State College. One day, his friend ships him a mountain lion in a crate with a sign on it saying “HERE KELLER — Train This.” His friend does this as part joke and part challenge, as everyone knows how much he loves training animals. He takes it home and decides to actually […]

A Brief But Fascinating Circus Autobiography

Last of the Forty-Horse Drivers by Jake Posey

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This brief but information-packed autobiography details the life of Jake Posey, who drove forty-horse teams for several circuses during the late 1800s and early 1900s. He traveled with Barnum & Bailey, Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, and other important but now not generally known circuses like the Sparks Circus. I really enjoyed this book, as I am very into circuses and circus history. If you don’t have a general knowledge of the history of the circus, this might not be the book for you, as […]



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