From School Library Journal
Grade 4-7Max and Jodi are traveling across the country with the circus. Max is an orphan who is apprenticing as a wild-animal trainer and Jodi is a 13-year-old equilibrist. Both of these dangerous jobs provide constant adventure, and the book flows well as it follows the nonstop action. Chapters are filled with very real situations such as stampeding elephants and death-defying high-wire acts, all of which are believably presented with plausible and (mostly) happy endings. The climax occurs when, on the road to a performance in a new town, the circus train causes the collapse of a trestle and falls into a river during a storm. The story deals with physical risks, but also the mental challenges of winning out over fear to do what one must. Exciting without being melodramatic, the book will have great appeal to all kids, especially as Max and Jodi emergealbeit predictablyas the heroes, winning the respect and admiration of the adults.Andrew Medlar, Chicago Public Library, IL Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Card catalog description
In 1892 Max and Jodi, young employees of a traveling circus, find their lives endangered when their train wrecks in a storm.