Big Top Burning - by Laura A Woollett (Paperback)

About the Book

Draws upon primary source documents and survivor interviews to recount the story of one of the worst disasters in American history, the 1944 Hartford circus fire, which claimed the lives of over one hundred people.

Book Synopsis

The fire broke out at 2:40 p.m. Thousands of men, women, and children were crowded under Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey's big top watching the Flying Wallendas begin their death-defying high-wire act. Suddenly someone screamed "Fire!" and the panic began. By 2:50 the tent had burned to the ground. Not everyone had made it out alive.

With primary source documents and survivor interviews, Big Top Burning recounts the true story of the 1944 Hartford circus fire--one of the worst fire disasters in US history. Its remarkable characters include: Robert Segee, the fifteen-year-old circus roustabout and known pyromaniac; and the Cook children, Donald, Eleanor, and Edward, who were in the audience when the circus tent caught fire. Guiding readers through the investigations of the mysteries that make this moment in history so fascinating, this book 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? Big Top Burning combines a gripping disaster story, an ongoing detective and forensics saga, and World War II-era American history, inviting middle-grade readers to take part in a critical evaluation of the evidence and draw their own conclusions.

Review Quotes

"Fascinating, devastating, and impeccably researched." --Booklist

"This chronological account vividly describes the circus, the fire, the rescue, and the medical care that followed. History buffs and fans of forensic television shows will especially appreciate this exploration of one of the worst fires in American history." --Kirkus Reviews

"While walking readers ages 11 and older through the disaster and its long investigative aftermath, Ms. Woollett takes pains to point out how the world 70 years ago differed from our own." --The Wall Street Journal

About the Author

Laura A. Woollett is an educational publisher in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she writes and edits fiction and nonfiction for struggling and reluctant readers. She is member of SCBWI and a former reviewer for the Horn Book Guide. She lives in Framingham, Massachusetts.