If You Ever Want to Bring a Circus to the Library, Don't! (Magnolia Says DON'T! Series #3)

by Elise Parsley

Overview

The third book in the bestselling Magnolia Says Don't! series, which started with If You Ever Want to Bring an Alligator to School, Don't!, is another loud and cautionary tale of what not to do—this time, at the library!

If you see a poster that says "You Can Do Anything at the Library!", it is NOT giving you permission to put on a circus! But Magnolia doesn't see any problem with setting up her own big top. She's got a lot of gusto and one mean human cannonball routine. So what if her greatest show on Earth won't fit between the bookshelves? Elise Parsley's boldly expressive illustrations perfectly complement this mostly-librarian-approved guide on how to be everything BUT quiet in the library!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316376617
Publisher:	Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication date:	05/02/2017
Series:	Magnolia Says DON'T! Series , #3
Pages:	40
Sales rank:	191,867
Product dimensions:	9.00(w) x 11.30(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Elise Parsley has written and illustrated the New York Times bestseller If You Ever Want to Bring an Alligator to School, DON'T! and three other stories about Magnolia, as well as How to Catch a Clover Thief and Neck & Neck. She also illustrated The Magic Word by Mac Barnett. Elise and her family live in South Dakota, and she invites you to visit her website at eliseparsley.com.

Editorial Reviews

Praise for If You Ever Want to Bring a Circus to the Library, Don't!:
"Good fun to read aloud."
—Kirkus Reviews

"This enjoyable romp through the library with Magnolia will engage young readers and keep them looking forward to her next adventure."—School Library Journal

"Spunky little Magnolia continues to push rules to the limit and offer not-so-useful, but always entertaining, advice in her latest outing....Magnolia has to get creative when her human cannonball trick hits a snag....Though the ultimate conclusion is that circuses aren't library-appropriate, the story offers a fun way to address proper library behavior without ignoring the joy books can bring."

—Booklist

"Bright illustrations and plenty of laugh-out-loud humor."—Brightly

Praise for If You Ever Want to Bring a Piano to the Beach, Don't!:
"Magnolia's voice is wonderfully childlike... but her facial expressions top all, perfectly capturing both her exuberance and her mood swings."—Kirkus Reviews

Praise for If You Ever Want to Bring an Alligator to School, Don't!:
A New York Times Bestseller


"Parsley's digitally created illustrations brim with energy and just-edgy-enough humor... and the well-chosen school-day details in both the artwork and text... deliver a steady stream of laughs."—Publishers Weekly

"[It] revels in the rampage of the id-here in the form of a formidable and toothy crocodilian. Elise Parsley's jaunty second-person narration is matched by comically expressive and detailed digital artwork that seems to shout from the page."—Wall Street Journal

"Children are likely to get a kick out of Magnolia's not-quite-contrite tone and the colorful chaos her giant pet creates."—New York Times

"This is an engaging debut picture book [that] will appeal to a wide age range. Here's hoping for more adventures with Magnolia!"—School Library Journal

From the Publisher

05/01/2017
PreS-Gr 2—You can do anything at the library. Seeing this message on a poster has given Magnolia an idea: she will bring a circus to the library! Will the child upset the librarian and the patrons with her circus? Will she entertain everyone or cause a commotion? As Magnolia performs acrobatics, she reminds her audience to hold their applause, because you can do anything at the library, except clap. Bright, fun illustrations convey the absurdity of her statements. Magnolia's circus includes a clown, pie throwing, concessions, and a human cannonball. Magnolia is mortified when her cannon is a dud and her audience gets antsy. Looking for a distraction, she grabs a book. Reading to the crowd does the trick. Her audience responds so positively to the story that Magnolia learns the power of a good read-aloud. She also discovers that a library is not a good place for a circus. VERDICT This enjoyable romp through the library with Magnolia will engage young readers and keep them looking forward to her next adventure.—Susan Small, Salve Regina University Library, Newport, RI

School Library Journal

2017-02-01
Quiet in the library? Not while Magnolia is in action!The irrepressible youngster previously brought an alligator to school and a piano to the beach. Now she is a circus master in the library. Smilingly, she informs the librarian, a white male, that she will follow all the appropriate rules of library behavior, but twirling, tightrope walking, and pie-in-the-face throwing unsurprisingly elicit noisy responses from the racially diverse group of children in the audience. (Black-haired Magnolia herself appears to be Asian.) Alas, the cannon that is supposed to toss her is a dud, resulting in a very loud chorus of boos. How to win back the audience? Read aloud from that action-packed thriller The Three Billy Goats Gruff. Smiling faces return, but soon astonishment takes over as the cannon finally does its job—with Magnolia and the others having to realign shelves and pick up all the fallen books. So the lesson is learned: a circus in the library is "way too noisy." Parsley's tale is good fun to read aloud, and the second-person narrative will have listeners immediately caught up in the action. The round-faced children are quite expressive, and the custom typeface embellishes the drama by becoming a dramatic and eye-popping element of the page design. Librarians will love sharing this story, maybe. Their listeners will love hearing it, definitely. (Picture book. 4-8)

Kirkus Reviews