Summary Of The Book 'That Time I Joined The Circus'

“That Time I Joined the Circus”by J.J. Howard is a fiction book that will take you on an adventure full of emotion, self discovery, and a circus made up of colorful characters (and a tiger!) The book begins in New York, New York, where Xandra and her father, Gavin, live in an apartment. Her mother left when she was still very young, but the wound is still fresh in Xandra’s heart. Xandra attends school at a private academy that her father paid for in full, and even though she hates the school, it is where her two best friends, Bailey and Eli, attend as well. Much to Xandra’s dismay, Bailey and Eli were a couple and seemed to forget her over the summer while they were in the Hamptons together. Even though Xandra and Eli grew apart over summer …show more content…
Before Xandra leaves, the lawyer gives her the last known address of her mother: a traveling circus called Europa. After one last night at Gavin’s apartment, Xandra uses the last of her money to buy a Grey Hound ticket to Florida in hopes of finding the only family she has left. Upon her arrival to what she calls “somewhere in the middle of Florida” and nearly colliding with a tiger, Xandra finds the circus owner and ring leader, Louie, who tells her that her mom left months ago. Realizing that Xandra has no where else to go, Louie takes her in and makes her part of the Europa crew. After her first day at the circus, Xandra decides to change her name to Lexi because she doesn’t feel like the same person she used to be. Between a short lived and rocky romance with Jamie, a hunky crew member who runs rides at the circus’s carnival and a longer, more complicated relationship with a cute, but intimidating , crew member named Nick, Lexi befriends two of the people in the trapezes trio; Lina and Lishka, who are also Louie’s