A middle-grade novel for fans of boarding school stories--with a dash
of The Mysterious Benedict Society and a splash of Circus
Mirandus!
Sebastian Konstantinov comes from a long line of talented circus
performers. Somehow, however, he has not inherited any of their
acrobatic skill: he has no balance, he's afraid of heights, he can't
even turn a somersault. But there's one thing he does know: his father's
circus, which travels through Eastern Europe, is out of date and is fast
running out of money.
Seb has a solution, though: if he can somehow get into the Bonaventure
Circus School in Montreal, Canada, he might be able to learn something
valuable to help his father. Seb secretly writes to the Directrice (an
old friend of his father's) and is accepted into the school. All he has
to do is convince his father to send him away -- oh, and keep his lack
of talent a secret from all his teachers and classmates. Fortunately for
him, he befriends two other students, who also don't seem to quite fit
in.
Seb is not the only one with secrets, it turns out. The school is
literally crumbling beneath the feet of its students, and the directrice
may be counting on Seb's talent to save the day. Can he and his new
friends figure out what's really going on in the school that bills
itself as the World's Best Circus School?