Emma, Emily, and Emiliana, identical triplets, fed up with their parents, who never seem to do anything, run away to the circus. Emiliana is generally an easy-going girl, with two exceptions. One is if anyone hurts her sisters, as Toothless Tommy discovered in the second grade (he wasn't called "Toothless" before he stuck Emily's hair to her chair with duct tape). And the other is: once she's decided she's going to do something, then it's been Decided.

If you've ever studied English literature, you've probably heard the expression, "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned." Although if you tried to look this up, you won't find it, because it isn't actually a quote from English literature. The expression comes from a play by William Congreve, who wrote something slightly different. But the point is, hell hath no fury like Emiliana when she's been Prevented.

Setting: Sir Surly's Surprising Sirkus is home to an irritable clown ("Never come between a clown and her vices!"), a jealous contortionist ("I've got a drawer full of bus schedules, can get you home from any city in America"), a mad ringmaster ("Children in danger is always good!"), and an autistic knife thrower ("-- "). But if that's too crazy, they can always run away to the rival circus, whose ringmaster seems to want them ("You are beautiful! You have grace! You are cooler than a cat in deep freeze!").

Age Range: 4th-8th grade.

Book Lessons: "Don't tell me you think entertainment is 'just for fun!'" Sir Surly shouted.

"Isn't that what the word means?" Emma asked.

"Good God no!" Sir Surly put his hands over his ears as if he were auditioning to model for an Edvard Munch painting. "We're sixty minutes from the Apocalypse and she thinks it's all about fun! You must understand." He advanced slowly on the Ems. "What people think is 'fun' defines who they are! Do you want to live in a world where fun is sarcasm and boredom? Fantasies of superiority? Do you want 'fun' to be watching people getting what's coming to them? Or would you rather live in a world of reckless joy, astonishment, humility, color, danger, and love? Hmm? If you believed that, why did you run away from Bo-Twenty? Answer me that one!"

"It might have had something to do with him trying to electrocute us," Emiliana said.

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