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| Genre/Form: | Biographies Case studies History Juvenile works Juvenile literature Case studies Juvenile literature |
|---|---|
| Material Type: | Biography, Elementary and junior high school, Internet resource |
| Document Type: | Book, Internet Resource |
| All Authors / Contributors: |
Laura A Woollett |
| ISBN: | 9781613731147 1613731140 |
| OCLC Number: | 890912597 |
| Target Audience: | Ages 10-13. |
| Description: | 167 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm |
| Contents: | The circus comes to town -- "The greatest show on Earth" -- Fire! -- "The day the clowns cried" -- Municipal hospital -- "Who knows this child?" -- Who was to blame? -- Accident or arson? -- A name for Little Miss 1565. |
| Responsibility: | Laura A. Woollett. |
Abstract:
On July 6, 1944, thousands of fans made their way to Barbour Street in Hartford, Connecticut, to see the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus performance. Not long after the show's start, a fire broke out and spread rapidly as panicked circus-goers pushed and scrambled to escape. Within 10 minutes the entire big top had burned to the ground, and 167 people never went home. Big Top Burning recounts the true story of one of the worst fire disasters in US history. It follows the tragic stories of the Cook family -- including children Donald, Eleanor, and Edward, who were in the audience that day -- and 15-year-old Robert Segee, a circus employee with an incendiary past. Drawing on primary sources and interviews with survivors, author Laura Woollett guides readers through several decades of investigations and asks, Was the unidentified body of a little girl nicknamed "Little Miss 1565" Eleanor Cook? Was the fire itself an act of arson -- and did Robert Segee set it? Young readers are invited to evaluate the evidence and draw their own conclusions.
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