Friday's Forgotten Books: Galliano's Circus

Before getting down to the business of Friday's Forgotten Books, I wish you all a Happy Halloween! Child #4 is uberly excited for this evening. She's dressing up as an angel. Dorothy the Dog will be a witch.

And, now...a big obnoxious drum roll...Friday's Forgotten Books.

My parents firmly believed in reading books aloud. Long past the time when we could read for ourselves. I think it's a great family activity. Certainly it spawns discussion.I really must institute it more with my own kids.

Enid Blyton (1897-1968) was a British children's author who wrote A LOT of books. About EIGHT HUNDRED over her forty-year career! Not to turn this into a math post, but that's an average of TWENTY BOOKS A YEAR. Yowser!

You might know her for her Noddy books or her Famous Five series.


But our favorite read-aloud was the circus series: Mr. Galliano's Circus (1938), Hurrah for the Circus (1939), and Circus Days Again (1942). These books are about 185 pages and have line drawings.

From Wikipedia (sorry, I'm pretty much cheating here, but I still have a special Halloween dessert to make):
The Circus Series (or trilogy) begins with Mr. Galliano's Circus, where the protagonist is Jimmy Brown. The story revolves around Jimmy, his parents, his dog, Lucky and the others like Lotta, who work in the Circus. Lotta is a small girl who rides horses.The other characters include Lilliput, the man with the monkeys; Stanley, the clown; Mr Tonks, the owner of Jumbo the Elephant; and Lotta’s parents, Lal and Laddo.

These books are definitely dated. I would imagine most of Blyton's books are. There has been some updating of language. For example, "golliwogs" has been replaced with "teddy bears." Also, there's an old-fashioned attitude about the circus books. Like stuff to do with the British class system and some racial stereotyping. And the plot moves somewhat slowly compared to contemporary children's fiction.

Yet, there was something captivating. My sisters and I were excited each evening to hear the continued adventures of Jimmy and company. I think I'll try reading Mr. Galliano's Circus with Child #4. She loves animals and stories about them. And I'm curious to see if I can figure out why I loved the series.

Hop over to pattinase's blog for links to other posts for Friday's Forgotten Books. Even though she's super busy this week, Patti organized this round-up early. That's how wonderful she is.

sources:http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/The-Circus-Serieshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Circus_Series