Who Put the B in the Ballyhoo?($16.96Value)

Description

Before the days of TV, DVDs, and video games, there was the circus. When it came to town, businesses and schools would shut down. Folks would gather round, for there, right in front of their eyes, was drama, action, and intrigue. There was the grace ofthe bareback rider, the daring of the acrobat, the strangeness of the snake lady, and the delight of the dancing pigs. Vintage-style circus posters capture the weird and the wonderful while fascinating sidebars reveal historical truths behind America’s circuses. What was it like when the circus came to town? This book, illustrated in rich oils, gives us a ringside seat. Kindergarten-Grade 4–This is a visually appealing, well-designed, clearly written, but ultimately problematic book. Beccia uses mixed-media digital art to create a tribute to the circus. Although the book jacket states that this book will take readers back to a time when the circus was a primary form of entertainment, no other expository material is provided to indicate when, where, or if this is an accurate statement. The framed, full-page illustrations are intended to resemble circus posters, but the identical retro feel comes across whether the act depicted is from the 1830s or the 1980s. The posters are arranged alphabetically, although the words selected to represent each letter are rarely exclusively circus related, other than the B is for Ballyhoo. There is no chronological order, and while years are sometimes mentioned in the brief sentences underneath the posters, often they are not. Posters feature Siamese twins, a bearded lady, and a contortionist. There is no much-needed introduction or afterword to place things in historical perspective. The book certainly serves as a colorful introduction, but a more balanced view of the circus experience is called for.– Grace Oliff, Ann Blanche Smith School, Hillsdale, NJ Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From " A is for awesome, / A show for all ages / Death defying acts / and strange beasts in cages" to Z for a zippy trip to the next town, Beccia celebrates the grand old days of the traveling circus with an alphabet of typical acts and great performers of the past. Each nearly full-page circus-poster-style illustration, with an amplifying caption squeezed beneath, features a stylishly posed figure or group, labeled in ornately lettered text that promises marvels and wonders never before seen. What better way to evoke the Big Top's historical enticements as well as to introduce the likes of Annie Oakley, Harry Houdini, the Flying Wallendas--or, for that matter, Jumbo the elephant, 772-pound "Ravishing Ruth" Pontico, and the bearded "Lady Esau"? Step right up. John Peters Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved What better way to evoke the Big Top's historical enticements? . . . Step right up. Booklist, ALA Today's readers may be as entranced by Beccia's depictions of such spectacles as their forebearers were by the real thing. Publishers Weekly — Carlyn Beccia's published works include Who Put the B in the Ballyhoo? and The Raucous Royals . The latter was inspired by her trip to Paris: “I went to Versailles,” she writes, “and discovered that Marie Antoinette never said her infamous line ‘Let them eat cake.’ Then I remembered also believing that Anne Boleyn had six fingers. After much digging, I discovered that one of her biographers after her death said she had an extra nail. A nail isn’t a finger. That discovery led to another rumor and then another.”