The Runaway Clown

“The boss has every circus worker looking for him.” Roberto sighed. “But there’s a big problem.” He shook his head as though finding it hard to believe himself. “Leo is a master of disguises. We never know what he’ll look like next.”

Book: The Runaway Clown (Adventures of the Northwoods, Book 8) by Lois Walfrid Johnson, Bethany House Publishers, 1993

Genre: Adventure

Target Audience: Girls 11-15

Subjects: Dating relationships, Greed

Summary: Kate is going back to the area she grew up in and gets to see her friends from Minneapolis again due to free tickets to the circus coming through the area! She and her siblings are extremely excited until they get there and find themselves in the midst of a mystery. Someone is out to harm the Great Roberto, one of the clowns in the circus. Kate and Anders take a job helping with the circus in order to search for clues easier. In the midst of it, Kate has to make some tough choices about relationships with her old friends.

Notes: The Runaway Clown is the eighth in the Adventures In The Northwoods series. The series focuses on a young girl right at the beginning of her teen years as she adjusts to life in a very different kind of home and to a new family. The story covers about a year and a half of her life. The main character, Kate has a strong sense of curiosity and stubbornness so whenever she finds something odd she determines to find out what is going on. Sometimes the mysteries find her, sometimes she seeks them out. Through the series she transitions from someone who has only heard but not accepted a relationship with God to a girl learning to put her trust in God and look to Him for wisdom and direction.

In this eighth book, there is a mystery going on as usual, with lessons Kate and the others are learning from it, but the more fascinating aspect is Kate’s struggle with how to tell her friends about her faith. She has changed since she left Minneapolis. Her relationship with God has become very important to her, and that’s something her old friends don’t share. At one time she had a crush on Michael and he finds her attractive now as well. He wants to be more than just friends with Kate and her old feelings for him are still there. Kate has to decide what matters most to her in a relationship with a boy. The author does a really good job taking Kate through the process of figuring all of this out.

Recommendation Scale: 5/5

Reviewer: J:-)mi

Proverbs 4:23 - Above all else, guard your heart for it is the wellspring of life. Let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your gaze directly before you. Make level paths for your feet and take only ways that are firm. Do not swerve to the right or the left; keep your foot from evil.