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 But there's one thing he does know- his father's circus, which travels through Eastern Europe, is out of date and is fast running out of money.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? SEE LESS

Author Biography

RACHELLE DELANEY is the author of several middle-grade novels, including The Metro Dogs of Moscow, which was a CLA Book of the Year Honour Book, as well as a finalist for the Silver Birch Award and the Red Cedar Award, among others. Its sequel, The Circus Dogs of Prague, was shortlisted for the 2017 Pacific Northwest Library Association Young Reader's Choice Award. Her newest novel, The Bonaventure Adventures, was published in 2017. Visit her at www.rachelledelaney.com.