Clowns in Town


Book Description

'The Ringmaster' has sent a group of robotic clowns to the Queen's garden party to kidnap her. Jack and Wanda have to stop the clowns and save Her Majesty... but will they end up with custard pie on their faces? Badger's hugely popular Alien Detective Agency series features 20 books that follow a human/alien crime-fighting duo called Jack Swift and Wanda Darkstar as they meet weird and wonderful aliens, both on other worlds and here on Earth. Their adventures progress across two sets of ten books, which can also be enjoyed as standalone novels. These reluctant readers are aimed at students with a reading age of 8-9 and an interest age of 9-14. The vibrant, witty main characters and exciting plots make Alien Detective Agency a must-have for any school library.




City of Clowns


Book Description

A gorgeously rendered graphic novel of Daniel Alarcón’s story City of Clowns. From the author of The King Is Always Above the People, which was longlisted for the 2017 National Book Award for Fiction. Oscar “Chino” Uribe is a young Peruvian journalist for a local tabloid paper. After the recent death of his philandering father, he must confront the idea of his father’s other family, and how much of his own identity has been shaped by his father’s murky morals. At the same time, he begins to chronicle the life of street clowns, sad characters who populate the violent and corrupt city streets of Lima, and is drawn into their haunting, fantastical world. This remarkably affecting story by Daniel Alarcón was included in his acclaimed first book, War by Candlelight, and now, in collaboration with artist Sheila Alvarado, it takes on a new, thrilling form. This graphic novel, with its short punches of action and images, its stark contrasts between light and dark, truth and fiction, perfectly corresponds to the tone of Chino’s story. With the city of Lima as a character, and the bold visual language from the story, City of Clowns is moving, menacing, and brilliantly vivid.




Escape to Clown Town


Book Description

General Sharaya touched Duchess’ dark brown hair as she lay weak and dying on the cold stone floor of their jail cell. The dark star Epsilon Eridani finally succeeded in taking her star stone. Duchess has yet to learn that General Sharaya is her cousin and that she herself is Faree. 18 year old Duchess is a simple village girl that has no idea that she is at the center of the most epic war of the ages that is soon to come. Duchess tries desperately to escape her village upbringing and dreams of becoming a dancer in the famous Royal Clown Ballet. Duchess has not been told the truth about her royal fairy lineage and falls victim to a universal plot; conjured by the dark star Epsilon Eridani. The clowns easily ensnare Duchess by seducing her with the life she’s always dreamed of. After Duchess escapes her kidnapper, she wakes up in the grandest room she has ever been in. When she gets up to look out of her window, she realizes that she is in the Grand Clown Plaza Hotel located in the center of Clown Town. King Clownington quickly learns of Duchess’ arrival to Clown Town and immediately plots with Epsilon on how to extract her star stone. Epsilon learned from killing many fairies that star stones must be freely given in order to retain their power and cannot be extracted under duress. King Clownington orders his son Jax to court Duchess and the entire clown family does all that they can to trick Duchess into sacrificing her stone. Duchess falls in love with the king’s son but starts to grow suspicious when she tries to leave Clown Town and is not able to. General Sharaya sends Duchess a seemingly cryptic message about the clowns that Duchess fails to understand, until it’s too late. With the universe on the brink of a war that has the power to penetrate space and time, will Duchess become trapped by her hatred of the clowns or freed by her new found destiny?




Clowns


Book Description




The Clown of God


Book Description

This beautiful new edition of Tomie dePaola’s 1978 classic retelling of a French legend stars a little juggler whose unique talent leads him to what might be a Christmas miracle. Little Giovanni is poor and homeless, but he can do something wonderful: he can juggle. The people of Sorrento marvel at his talents, and before long, he becomes famous throughout Italy for his rainbow of colored balls that delight the nobility and townspeople alike. But as the years pass, Giovanni grows old, and his talents begin to fail him. No longer a celebrated performer, he is once again poor and homeless, begging for his food. Until one Christmas Eve, when Giovanni picks up his rainbow of colored balls once more. And what happens next just might be a miracle…




The Farmer and the Clown


Book Description

Whimsical and touching images tell the story of an unexpected friendship and the revelations it inspires in this moving, wordless picture book from two-time Caldecott Honor medalist Marla Frazee. A baby clown is separated from his family when he accidentally bounces off their circus train and lands in a lonely farmer’s vast, empty field. The farmer reluctantly rescues the little clown, and over the course of one day together, the two of them make some surprising discoveries about themselves—and about life! Sweet, funny, and moving, this wordless picture book from a master of the form and the creator of The Boss Baby speaks volumes and will delight story lovers of all ages.




Sophie the Clown in Crinkle Town


Book Description

Sophie Ah Choo is a spirited young clown in the world of Circus Land. She lives quite happily with her parents in Snuggle-Ville, a neighbourhood in the capital city, Topsy-Turvy. She attends clown school and spends time with her friends and her dog, Noodles. She is safe and content until her world is turned upside down by an evil mastermind. Maximilian is the wicked ringleader of the Wonderfully Spectacular Circus in Crinkle Town. He sends his nasty recruits, Mrs. X and Mr. Y, to Snuggle-Ville to kidnap clowns for his show. Sophie's parents catch the attention of the kidnappers, and soon her mother and father have been taken to Crinkle Town! Sophie is determined to do anything to save her parents from Maximilian. She must leave her happy home in Snuggle-Ville and make her way to Crinkle Town. Along the way, she'll have to follow her heart, face her fears, and do her best on this quest of a lifetime.




Clown in a Cornfield


Book Description

Bram Stoker Award Winner for Superior Achievement in a Young Adult Novel In Adam Cesare’s terrifying young adult debut, Quinn Maybrook finds herself caught in a battle between old and new, tradition and progress—that just may cost her life. Quinn Maybrook and her father have moved to tiny, boring Kettle Springs, to find a fresh start. But what they don’t know is that ever since the Baypen Corn Syrup Factory shut down, Kettle Springs has cracked in half. On one side are the adults, who are desperate to make Kettle Springs great again, and on the other are the kids, who want to have fun, make prank videos, and get out of Kettle Springs as quick as they can. Kettle Springs is caught in a battle between old and new, tradition and progress. It’s a fight that looks like it will destroy the town. Until Frendo, the Baypen mascot, a creepy clown in a pork-pie hat, goes homicidal and decides that the only way for Kettle Springs to grow back is to cull the rotten crop of kids who live there now. YALSA’s Best Fiction for Young Adults Nominee




Clown Girl


Book Description

Clown Girl lives in Baloneytown, a seedy neighborhood where drugs, balloon animals, and even rubber chickens contribute to the local currency. Against a backdrop of petty crime, she struggles to live her dreams, calling on cultural masters Charlie Chaplin, Kafka, and da Vinci for inspiration. In an effort to support herself and her layabout performance-artist boyfriend, Clown Girl finds herself unwittingly transformed into a "corporate clown," trapping herself in a cycle of meaningless, high-paid gigs that veer dangerously close to prostitution. Monica Drake has created a novel that riffs on the high comedy of early film stars — most notably Chaplin and W. C. Fields — to raise questions of class, gender, economics, and prejudice. Resisting easy classification, this debut novel blends the bizarre, the humorous, and the gritty with stunning skill.




Lovers, Clowns, and Fairies


Book Description

Through dreams and shadows and strangeness, through blinding charms and eye-opening counter-charms, through moments of mortification and laughter—thus Stuart M. Tave traces the journey of the lovers, clowns, and fairies who populate comedies from A Midsummer Night's Dream to Waiting for Godot. Tave avoids the pitfalls of theory, taking instead a close look at particular works to give us a sense of the relations between certain dramas and novels that are called comedies. The result is a wonderfully readable book that renews our delight in the enchanting possibilities of literature. A Midsummer Night's Dream, in its "perfection," is Tave's point of departure. Its characters fall neatly into the three groups of Tave's title and fulfill to perfection their functions of desire, foolishness, and power. From the magical concord of Shakespeare's resolution, Tave moves to works whose character face ever greater difficulties in reaching a happy conclusion. From Jonson and Austen to Chekhov and Beckett, he meets comedies on their own terms, illuminating the complex and individual genius of each. A masterpiece of practical criticism, Lovers, Clowns, and Fairies rediscovers the pleasure of reading comedies.