Customer Reviews

Circus Carnivore

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4 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

I saw this cover & was instantly attracted to this book, after reading the unfavorable review on here by "Art Teacher" who criticizes the work as TOO dark & disturbing, I just HAD to buy it to see what was under the cover! I'm sorry, but whatever evils the previous reviewer thought were lurching here, well, I just couldn't find them. Certainly it is a different type of children's book, but that doesn't make it inappropriate. Perhaps very sheltered children might find it disturbing, mine (4&8) found nothing the least bit shocking. The smiles are not what I'd call evil, just mischievous, as the characters donning them are meant to be a representation of the loudness that keeps getting the girl in trouble with her parents. After being sent again to her room for rudeness, she redirects the tirelessly (bloodshot eyes) "noise-some" manifestations into a more acceptable and joyous line of work. She creates a circus in her mind. Each noisy character is given a new occupation, one particularly rotund one decides to be the human cannonball, he sports a white Evel Knievel style stunt suit with flame embellishments (not blood). My kids enjoyed this book, the nonsense verse was particularly fun for my son who is eight. He enjoyed deciphering the word play & had no problem following the story-line after a slight bit of analysis. If you don't want to encourage critical thinking & exposure to non mainstream art then you should most definitely keep this book away from your children & buy something "positive" instead.

Circus Carnivore contains illustrations that are disturbing and dark. Though twisting of non-sensical words into fun-to-say phrases may be amusing, this is, in my opinion, completely innappropriate for children. Whether the bloody human cannonball, bloodshot eyes, or evil grins, it's all a bit twisted and may cause fear of clowns, circus acts, and possibly nightmares. I'm not sure it's even meant for the entertainment of children. I'm sure I was not ammused by it. I did not read it to my son. There are many great, positive children's books out there. This is not one of them.