A novel of star-crossed lovers, set in the circus world circa 1932. When Jacob Jankowski, recently orphaned and suddenly adrift, jumps onto a passing train, he enters a world of freaks, grifters, and misfits, a second-rate circus struggling to survive during the Great Depression, making one-night stands in town after endless town. A veterinary student who almost earned his degree, Jacob is put in charge of caring for the circus menagerie. It is there...

When a circus ship runs aground off the coast of Maine, the poor animals are left on their own to swim the chilly waters. Staggering onto a nearby island, they soon win over the wary townspeople with their kind, courageous ways. So well do the critters blend in that when the greedy circus owner returns to claim them, villagers of all species conspire to outsmart the bloated blowhard.

A traveling circus arrives, sets up its village of tents, performs for the crowd, and then moves on again.

A child's teeth must be brushed, hair combed, and bed made before going to the circus.

When Frieda and Boffo Clown have a baby, the entire circus is over the moon. But there is one problem: Baby Clown won't stop crying.

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.

Skippyjon Jones, the Siamese cat that thinks he is a Chihuahua dog, wants to perform his high-wire act in the circus.

Aboard "The Boundless," the greatest train ever built, on its maiden voyage across Canada, teenaged Will enlists the aid of a traveling circus to save the train from villains.

W.C. Fields stars as a lovable con man who becomes the unlikely guardian of an orphaned circus waif (Carol Dempster).