About the book:

In 1853 Pittsburgh, twelve-year-old Owen leaves his brother on a westward-bound orphan train and strikes out on his own. When he steals aboard a circus boat that's docked in town, he has nothing more in mind that catching a peek at the show. But then a free black man named Solomon offers to take him on as an assistant animal keeper, and as the boat heads south, Owen discovers a kind of family in the ragtag members of the circus- including an elephant named Little Bet. A brush with yellow fever in New Orleans and a devastating storm threaten the boat and its crew. But the menace of slave catchers poses the greatest danger of all will put Owen's loyalty to Solomon to the test.

The Floating Circus
Bloomsbury Children's Books
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010
www.bloomsburyusa.com
August 2008
Ages: 8-12
ISBN: 13: 978-1-59990-185-5
ISBN:10:  1-59990-185-4
208 pages
5  1/16 x 7 3/4
$15.99