What’s in it
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24 books with the same feel
Include books by the same authorWater for Elephants
Sara Gruen · 352 pages
As a young man, Jacob Jankowski was tossed by fate onto a rickety train that was home to the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. It was the early part of the great Depression, and for Jacob, now ninety, the circus world he remembers was both his salvation and a living hell. A veterinary student just shy of a degree, he was put in charge of caring for the circus menagerie. It was there
The Palace of Curiosities
Rosie Garland · 352 pages
"Before Eve is born, her mother goes to the circus. She swears she hears the lion sigh, just before it leaps... and nine months later when Eve is born, the story goes, she doesn't cry - she meows and licks her paws. When Abel is pulled from the stinking Thames, and the mudlarks search his pockets to divvy up the treasure, his eyes crack open and he coughs up a stream of black water. But, how has h
Little Stars
Jacqueline Wilson · 512 pages
Hetty Feather has begun a new chapter in her life story. Escaping from Tanglefield’s Travelling Circus with her dearest friend Diamond, Hetty is determined to find them positions as glamorous music hall artistes. Hetty and Diamond quickly become the Little Stars of Mrs Ruby’s show, alongside many colourful acts – including an old friend from Hetty’s past, Flirty Bertie. But the Cavalcade proves
Circus Galacticus
Deva Fagan · 304 pages
Trix's life in boarding school as an orphan charity case has been hard, but when an alluring young Ringmaster invites her, a gymnast, to join Circus Galacticus she gainss an entire universe of deadly enemies and potential friends, along with a chance to unravel secrets of her own past.
The Orphan's Tale
Pam Jenoff · 363 pages
Sixteen-year-old Noa, forced to give up her baby fathered by a Nazi soldier, snatches a child from a boxcar containing Jewish infants bound for a concentration camp and takes refuge with a traveling circus, where Astrid, a Jewish aerialist, becomes her mentor.
Daughter of the Burning City
Amanda Foody · 304 pages
Freeks
Amanda Hocking · 387 pages
Mara Beznik, who travels with Gideon Davorin's Traveling Carnival, longs for an ordinary life where no one has the ability to levitate or predict the future. When the show stops in Caudry and she meets gorgeous local Gabe, she finally gets her chance. But before long, Mara realizes there's a dark presence lurking in the town, and that she has only a week to harness a power she didn't know she had
Beholding Bee
Kimberly Newton Fusco · 336 pages
In 1942, when life turns sour at the carnival that has always been her home, eleven-year-old Bee takes her dog, Peabody, and piglet, Cordelia, and sets out to find a real home, aided by two women only Bee and her pets can see.
Tiger's Curse
Colleen Houck · 456 pages
The last thing teenager Kelsey Hayes thought she'd be doing over the summer was meeting Ren, a mysterious white tiger and cursed Indian prince! When she learns she alone can break the Tiger's curse, Kelsey's life is turned upside-down. The unlikely duo journeys halfway around the world to piece together an Indian prophecy, find a way to free the man trapped by a centuries-old spell, and discover t
The Diamond Thief
Sharon Gosling · 305 pages
No one performs on the circus trapeze like 16-year-old Rémy Brunel. But Rémy also leads another life, prowling through the backstreets of Victorian London as a jewel thief. When she is forced to steal one of the world's most valuable diamonds, she uncovers a world of treachery and fiendish plots.
Witch Child
Celia Rees · 261 pages
In 1659, fourteen-year-old Mary Newbury keeps a journal of her voyage from England to the New World and her experiences living as a witch in a community of Puritans near Salem, Massachusetts.
Jade Green
Phyllis Reynolds Naylor · 169 pages
While living with her uncle in a house haunted by the ghost of a young woman, recently orphaned Judith Sparrow wonders if her one small transgression causes mysterious happenings.
Ghost Boy
Iain Lawrence · 326 pages
Unhappy in a home seemingly devoid of love, a fourteen-year-old albino boy who thinks of himself as Harold the Ghost runs away to join the circus, where he works with the elephants and searches for a sense of who he is.
Venom
Fiona Paul
In Renaissance Venice, orphaned Cassandra Caravello is one of the elite but feels trapped in the city of water until she stumbles upon a murdered woman and is drawn into a dangerous world of courtesans, grave robbers, and secret societies, guided by Falco, a mysterious and alluring artist.
The Sherwood Ring
Elizabeth Marie Pope · 266 pages
Newly orphaned Peggy Grahame is caught off-guard when she first arrives at her family’s ancestral estate. Her eccentric uncle Enos drives away her only new acquaintance, Pat, a handsome British scholar, then leaves Peggy to fend for herself. But she is not alone. The house is full of mysteries—and ghosts. Soon Peggy becomes involved with the spirits of her own Colonial ancestors and witnesses the
The Book of Speculation
Erika Swyler · 376 pages
"Simon Watson, a young librarian on the verge of losing his job, lives alone on the Long Island Sound in his family home--a house, perched on the edge of a bluff, that is slowly crumbling toward the sea. His parents are long dead, his mother having drowned in the water his house overlooks. His younger sister, Enola, works for a traveling carnival reading tarot cards, and seldom calls. On a day in
The Immortal Circus
A.R. Kahler · 240 pages
Murdered contortionists aren't exactly what Vivienne signed up for when she ran away to join the circus. But like most things under the big top, nothing is what it seems. With a past she can't quite remeber, Vivienne finds that running away forever might not be as appealing as it once sounded - because forever means something quite different at the Cirque des Immortels.
A Great and Terrible Beauty
Libba Bray · 416 pages
The Witch of Blackbird Pond
Elizabeth George Speare · 249 pages
Orphaned Kit Tyler knows, as she gazes for the first time at the cold, bleak shores of Connecticut Colony, that her new home will never be like the shimmering Caribbean island she left behind. In her relatives' stern Puritan community, she feels like a tropical bird that has flown to the wrong part of the world, a bird that is now caged and lonely. The only place where Kit feels completely free is
Girl on a Wire
Gwenda Bond · 372 pages
"Sixteen-year-old Jules Maroni's dream is to follow in her father's footsteps as a high-wire walker. When her family is offered a prestigious role in the new Cirque American, it seems that Jules and the Amazing Maronis will finally get the spotlight they deserve. But the presence of the Flying Garcias may derail her plans. For decades, the two rival families have avoided each other as sworn enemie
Heaven Eyes
David Almond · 233 pages
Erin Law and her friends are Damaged Children. At least that is the label given to them by Maureen, the woman who runs the orphanage that they live in. Damaged, Beyond Repair because they have no parents to take care of them. But Erin knows that if they care for each other they can put up with the psychologists, the social workers, the therapists -- at least most of the time. Sometimes there is no
Venetia Kelly's Traveling Show
Frank Delaney · 427 pages