3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
When the Circus Came to Town, January 23, 2006
A Kid's Review
When the Circus Came to Town is a great book with a lot of adventure. The book is about a girl that gets smallpox, and the smallpox left scares on her face, she thought that her skin would return to normal from the scares on her face. Ursula felt horrible that she caught smallpox and she stopped going to school for a long time. She never wanted to show her face to anyone but her parents. Every day her friends would drop off her homework but then one day her friends saw her face and they went all wide eyed . She felt bad and thought they were afraid of her. Eventually all things turn out better.
A book like this can not get much better than this so I think that people of all ages would like this book.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Chinese New Year in Whistle, Montana, April 24, 2002
When the Circus Came to Town is a quick, enjoyable read. The illustrations are well done and the setting of Whistle, Montana comes to life with Yep's vivid description of the people and the surrounding mountains. The story has two main characters. Ursula is a young girl who at the beginning of the story leads her friends in adventures and play. She calls herself "Pirate Ursula." Ah Sam is a Chinese immigrant who comes to help Ursula's parents as a cook for their restaurant and stage coach depot. Early on in the story Ursula becomes sick with the smallpox. Her face is disfigured, and she refused to leave her room. Her friends come to the window and beg for "Pirate Ursula" to come and play, but her fear of being stared at makes her stay inside. Ah Sam, who also endures taunts and stares for being Chinese and looking different, befriends Ursula and teaches her how to cook. As Ursula becomes more and more confident in the kitchen she begins to come out of her shell. During the course of the story Ursula and Ah Sam exchange gifts - the most elaborate gift comes from Ah Sam in the form of a Chinese Circus. To bring Ursula outside Ah Sam asks his cousins to come to Whistle to perform. The show is quite a hit, and the townspeople welcome the Chinese performers with open arms. When the weather turns bad the performers cannot leave in order to arrive in San Francisco for Chinese New Year. Ursula and the townspeople work together to put on a Chinese New Year in Whistle. When the Circus Came to Town is well written and the dialogue flows smoothly. Tom, the Native American stagecoach driver, is an interesting character. Yep wrote the story based on events that really happened.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Facing the Music, January 19, 2011
Laurence Yep is a genius. It's as simple as that.
This is a masterpiece of a book that is a historical novel. Set in 1837-38 in rural Whistle, Montana, this story is vividly portrayed in Yep's masterful treatment. The illustrations are superb. So are the characters. Ursula, 10 is an adventurous girl who loves to play pirates with her friends Susie and Peter. They listen to her imagination take over and her positive descriptions of their small community. Susie, on the other hand yearns to live in Boston and wear pretty dresses and drink tea like a lady.
Everything changes when the smallpox epidemic hits. Urusula becomes stricken with the dread condition late the winter of 1837. Her face remains pockmarked and she refuses to leave her room.
Seeing a crisis point, the girl's parents hire a cook named Ah Sam from China. He happily settles into his new job at their food/rest stop. He had worked in San Francisco in Chinatown and jumped at the chance to leave the West Coast because, as he told Ursula, there were bigots there who "beat up anyone Chinese."
Ah Sam is the only person who can reach Urusla. She spurns her friends' visits, although they routinely implore "Pirate Urusla" to come back to school and come out to play. Urusla blocks her window with thick curtains and wears a scarf so as to obscure her face. One insensitive guest makes rude remarks about her face, which causes her to have a setback. Her father calls the clod a "donkey" and from then on Ursula calls all bigots and intolerant people "donkey people," as in "the donkey man."
Ah Sam's experiences are not too different from that of Ursula's as he draws stares from people who are unfamiliar with Asian people. He tells her about his daughter in China, whom he has never seen as he had to leave the country in order to send his family money. In time, he and Urusla bond and he teaches her to cook. She delights in his "light, fluffy pancakes" that have even more fluff than the pancakes her own mother makes! She is impressed with his knives from China. He teaches her some Chinese and explains the history of his queue, the long braid he wears wrapped around his neck. That queue was for him what Ursula's scars were for her. Although he feels the queue is a yoke, he explains that during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1912) men had to wear it or risk being beheaded.
The bond between them grows and, after a wonderful Christmas with gifts for Ah Sam and a party, his pride impels him to return his benefactors' kindness with gifts. He comes up with the idea of celebrating Chinese New Year as Christmas was not celebrated in China. Ursula and Ah Sam encourage others to join in the preparation of a Chinese New Year replete with a circus. He brings the circus to Ursula and her community, as they had expressed an interest in seeing one. His cousins come to visit and they practice their routines in Ursula's home. When they are ready to put on the show, the community eagerly embraces them. Ah Sam tells Ursula that he will bring the circus to her and in return, she must go outside and watch the performers.
A geniunely lovely story that will warm all hearts. It really is a global handshake.
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