Books in A Dell yearling book series

Come join the circus as Caldecott Medal-winner Peter Spier takes you for a look under the big top! The circus is coming to town! Take your front row seat to see how a circus runs—from setting up the tent to performing center ring. Go soaring through the air on the flying trapeze and see how performers from all over the world come together to put on a show. With showbiz excitement that only the circus can create—and Peter Spier's signature humorous details waiting to be discovered on every page—this book is a guaranteed ticket to fun and adventure."A treat!"—Kirkus"This premier illustrator offers a glorious new treat. . . . Children will undoubtedly want to pore over it."—School Library Journal

From the age of a year and a half, Helen Keller could not hear. She could not see, and she did not speak. She lived in a dark and lonely world--until Annie Sullivan came to teach her. Annie traced letters and words in Helen's hand, and made Helen realize she could "talk" to people. Eager to make up for lost time, Helen threw herself into her studies. She decided to teach others about the special training deaf and blind children need. Helen traveled all over the globe and raised money to start up schools for deaf and blind children. Her courage and her determination to help others conquer the odds against them earned her the respect and admiration of the world.

There is nothing Tee enjoys more than sitting out on the porch with her great-greatmother, listening to the fascinating stories about the lucky stone.Shiny and black as night, it brought good fortune to each of its owners for over one hundred years. First it helped Mandy, a runaway slave, win her freedom. Then it saved Vashti from death by lightning at a prayer meeting. And it even saved Tee's great-grandmother from the ferocious dancing dog and helped her meet her husband.Now Tee can't help wondering what the old stone has in store for her. She certainly could use some luck on Valentine's Day. But the lucky stone doesn't belong to Tee. How can her wish come true?

Fifth-grader Andy Moller will do anything to win the Roger B. Sudermann essay contest so that he can win fifty dollars and get his picture in the local newspaper. His cousin and rival, Jack, feels exactly the same way. But how can Andy be inventive and imaginative in an essay contest on conservation?Bugs and beetles, that's how. Leave it to Andy to think of people eating insects as a way of conserving their food budgets. Before long he's preparing toasted beetles in brownies, mealworm-filled egg salad sandwiches, and batter-fried earthworms for his friends and family. They don't know what they're in for, and neither does Andy. Will he win the contest and lose his friends and family?

Being small is a big concern for Chig Kalpin. Like the insects that catch folks unawares with their bites on a summer evening, Chig is small enough and silent enough that she’s near about invisible. But she has a heartfelt desire to become a big person, both in stature and in spirit, and soon her adventures culminate with the Great Niplak Train Disaster, where she helps the folks in the hills and hollers of southern Indiana make it through the Great Depression with a little more to spread between the covers of their sandwiches. Haven’t heard of it? Well, as Chig might say, “Set a spell and turn the page.”From the Hardcover edition.