On a blustery October night the Circus Oscuro came to town. It was clear from the start that this was no ordinary circus. They did not roll into town with fanfares and cartwheeling clowns. Instead they came in the dead of night, when all the townspeople were asleep. The circus wagons turned into the long field at the bottom of the hill that overlooked the town of Larde, and creaked to a halt in neat rows with barely a sound. There was just one witness to the arrival of the circus. A small boy, huddled in a large wooden barrel high on the side of the hill, watched the raising of the big top, awakened from his sleep by the shouts of the circus people and the occasional trumpeting of the elephants. The boy's name was Miles, and the barrel was his home...

 

This is number 1 in Wednesday Tales .

This book has been graded for interest at 8-12 years.

There are 464 pages in this book. This book was published 2010 by Katherine Tegen Books .

Brandon Dorman is the illustrator of Be Glad Your Nose is on Your Face and The Wizard , both by Jack Prelutsky; and The Christmas Sweater by Glenn Beck. He received a degree in fine arts from Brigham Young University-Idaho and lives in Puyallup, Washington, with his family. Jon Berkeley was born in Dublin. He has worked as a freelance illustrator for over twenty years and has turned more recently to writing. Jon has lived and worked in Sydney, Hong Kong, London and Dublin and now lives in a small town in Catalonia with his wife, Orna, and their five children, along with five cats, one dog and a small colony of stick insects. He wrote much of THE PALACE OF LAUGHTER in his head while walking the dog. You can visit him online at www. holytrousers. com.