LOUISE TRAPEZE DID NOT LOSE THE JUGGLING CHICKENS

Louise Trapeze is back (Louise Trapeze Is Totally 100% Fearless, 2015), longing to be more mature than ever.

Everyone at the Sweet Potato Traveling Circus Troupe has a job to do. Everyone, that is, except Louise. She does have a few Important Circus Jobs that she shares with her best friend, Stella, but it is not the same as having her very own grown-up responsibility. So she sets off to prove how dependable she can be. Earnest mistakes, such as causing a large “spaghetti-mountain spill” or putting too much oil on Clara Bear’s unicycle, pile up. But perhaps babysitting the juggling chickens will be her chance. All she needs to do is feed them a small snack while their trainer is gone. What could possibly go wrong? As Louise says—“Cheeze Louise and holy trapeze!”—oh so much. Luckily, Louise learns that asking for help is sometimes the most responsible, grown-up thing one can do. While the well-meaning little girl who makes mistakes and has idiosyncratic speech patterns is hardly new to the shelves, the circus setting distinguishes Ostow’s offering. Purple accents in the design and Barrager’s squiggle sketch vignettes enliven this second big-top tale, though they display very little ethnic variation among the troupe.

Louise is a feisty gal with the best of intentions. She just “accidentally a-little-bit” messes everything up.