BEN'S ADVENTURES

A boy with cerebral palsy imagines his early childhood classroom as a circus in this sequel.

In narration that sometimes utilizes rhyming stanzas, a boy named Ben, a triplet who uses a wheelchair, describes the fun of going to preschool: “There is SOOO much happening...that sometimes it’s like a CIRCUS.” He envisions his teacher as a ringmaster and a friend and himself as clowns. He transforms into a tiger tamer and a juggler, and his friends take turns clowning and riding elephants. When Ben’s imagination brings him back to his classroom, his teacher reads a picture book about circuses. Ben’s creativity is the focus of Gerlach’s (Ben’s Adventures: Day at the Beach, 2018) story, and many of the rhyming couplets flow smoothly for reading aloud. Yet others have interjected sentences or descriptions with no rhymes. Ben’s wheelchair is obvious in the classroom illustrations, providing a window into a different lifestyle, but it does not appear in the circus scenes, which may confuse young readers. Debut illustrator Hider skillfully replicates the style of the first installment of this picture-book series in her cartoon images of a diverse cast. The author’s choice of making Ben’s next escapade feature war play (which is teased at the end of the story) may be off-putting to some parents.

Themes of creativity and inclusion come through strongly in this adventure despite the shifting rhyme scheme.