DAVEY'S ADVENTURES WITH THE CLYDE BEATTY CIRCUS

Davey's adventures are trumped up on the tanbark of the Clyde Beatty Circus. The photographs of ""Davey"" are really of Clyde Beatty, Jr. This is a juvenile novel that could have been juvenile non-fiction because the only parts of the book worth lingering over are the factual details of planning and keeping a huge travelling show on the road. The fictional Davey is a composite of the wholesome American eleven year old boy on vacation with his father's old friend Loppy, a clown with Clyde Beatty. (The late, great animal trainer is a character in the book.) Potentially adequate non-fiction is decked in the trappings of a novel. The characterizations and the dialogue interrupt the flow of information. Worse, some of the incidents and consequent conversation devolve into broad hints on good boyish behavior. Perhaps only a contortionist could wriggle past the flaws in the fiction to praise the authenticity of the background. Further, the book raises the question of when self-advertisement or product promotion is acceptable. In straight biography or information-by-interview, the circus and its personnel would have to be identified as a matter of course, but this is not necessarily true of fiction unless what is being described is the only one of its kind. Demi-fiction.