Henri Bell is ten years old in 1890 when he is sent from Britain to America to live with his great aunt Georgie. Even though he loves his aunt there is only so much conversation they can make about her vast button collection and the scary next-door-neighbor, Mrs. Agatha Black, gives Henri the heebie-jeebies. His father has gone missing in British Malaya and his mother has gone to look for him. He discovers a housefly reading the newspaper in his room and realizes he can speak to the fly. Dom, short for Musca domestica, points out an article about a new man-eating insect, Goliathus Hercules, found near where his father has gone missing and this plants a seed in Henri to go in search of the bug and his father. The circus is in town and for unclear reasons, Henri feels threatened by Agatha Black and joins them to escape her, getting a job helping Maestro Antonio with the sideshow flea circus. Henri also makes friends with two other kids in the circus, Robin and Billy and when he decides to leave to search for his father and Goliathus hercules, all his friends go with him. When they leave they realize they are being pursued by Madame Noir, the circus fortune teller, whom Henri had seen torturing and eating insects. Mysteries abound to keep readers interested and the ending may be no surprise to some readers.",,,1,,,0,,,,,
15843281,That Time I Joined the Circus,J.J. Howard,Howard ( )

An adorable story with lovable characters. While it has a bit of a slow start it sets the stage for the main character, Henri. There were a few oddities and plot slips that left questions in my mind but I doubt the age group it's aimed for would be as pedantic. It's done well enough to please the young mind and for a first attempt it's actually quite good. ( )

Z thought he'd love this, given his entomology leanings. But, after the first chapter, he said it wasn't well written enough and abandoned it in favor of Metamorphosis ( )