Sawdust and Spangles: The Amazing Life of W.C Coup

Sawdust and Spangles: The Amazing Life of W.C Coup

Written by Ralph Covert and G. Riley Mills

Illustrated by Giselle Potter

32 pages

Abrams Books, 2007

Non-Fiction

      I found this book at a Food World that was going out of business. I bought it for twenty-five cents! This is a story about a young boy named William Cameron Coup. The circus comes to his town and he falls in love! He ends up running away with the circus. He works really hard and eventually he is able to have a circus of his own! He came up with a really cool name with "style" that can be printed on posters, so that is where the "W.C" came from. With more hard work he created a successful circus, as well as a side show! He had a very famous clown in his act named Dan Rice. He even performed for President Lincoln! He loved to stand in the shadows of his circus amidst the piles of sawdust with sparkles, spangles and magic coming to life right in front of him! One day, he received a telegram from a certain gentleman by the name of P.T. Barnum. They became partners in New York City! Together they put together a circus with two rings and he had the idea to haul it all around the country by train so everyone could enjoy the show! Then, he came up with his best idea yet-an underwater circus! He spent many years looking for the most exotic marine life to have in his aquarium! He even transported a whale in the hull of a ship! When his aquarium opened in New York City, it was amazing! No one had ever seen any of these creatures and they were astounded!  His life really was amazing!

      I am pretty sure that the illustrations are done in watercolors. I think that they are essential to the story because they do a lot of the story telling, but the  pictures are very odd in my opinion. They just don't speak to me in the same way that others have. The colors are very pretty though. They saturated and very folk-arty.

      First I would tell my class that they better not get any ideas- no one is running away to the circus! I would give them the opportunity to "design" their own circus. They would have to decide what animals, and how many animals would they have in their show? How would they transport them? This would promote forward thinking and organization. You could start a discussion about why they think people ran away to the circus? How was life different at that time, than it is now?