This poetry book is about a ship full of circus animals. While sailing to Maine, the ship crashes on rocks and sinks, sending all the animals and people aboard into the water. The circus master leaves all the animals in the water so he can get ashore safely. Eventually the animals swim onto an island and befriend all the people living there. When the circus master comes looking for the animals, they all hide from him in pain sight because they don't want to go back to being in the circus. I would recommend this book for a 1st or 2nd grade classroom and it could be used as a good introduction book to the genre of poetry.

One of my daughter's SantaThing books from 2022, this picture book is so much fun. It has great rhythm, beautiful artwork, and even a page with hidden animals that my daughter always loves to look at! ( )

I think I have mentioned many times about my love for Chris Van Dusen's illustrations. They are some of the most bright and engaging illustrations out there.

"The Circus Ship" follows animals who have been shipwrecked off the coast of Maine....and of Mr. Paine who wants his animals back at all costs. It's a delightful read full of opportunities to expand a child's vocabulary!! In fact, it was on this latest read through that I was aware of many! ( )

I would recommend this book to younger students who are wanting/needing to read poetry for class, it is a low reading level and could draw younger children in with its pictures. This book goes through the story of a circus on a boat that gets into a crash and the animals and people all end up in a town, which causes conflict at first but then they all become friends. This would be good in a classroom because it shows an engaging story through poems and shows that poems are important in education.

Genre
Picture books for children
Stories in rhyme
Tone
Amusing
Writing Style
Attention-grabbing
Illustration
Cartoony
Colorful
Location
Maine
Subject
Animals
Circus animals
Circus owners
Human/animal relationships
Shipwrecks
Time Period
19th century