Archie's Acrobats

Three sets of children in our extended family grew up loving this book, and friends who are professional clowns also raised their son with it. The lesson, that you can do anything if you work hard enough, goes down with sugar. Archie wants more than anything to be an acrobat. He and his team practice every morning, hard. They do headstands, handstands, one-man hold-me-ups and balancing acts. Then Aurion J. Pelderfettle, owner of Pelderfettle's World-famous circus, happens into town. The acrobats plan all night for their week-long audition. They make all kinds of fantasic formations--a pyramid and stockbrokers' umbrella, a sea horse and Bozo the Brontosaurus. Pelderfettle is impressed, but not enough. The acrobats make one last try at the Parent's Day Bazaar. They stumble out onto the hot lawn, Archie dressed like a cherry. A-one, a-two, a-three, they form an ice cream cone--which "melts" from their exhaustion. Pelderfettle hires them on the spot and Archie's acrobats are soon very famous indeed. Kids eat it up. Alyssa A. Lappen