The Acrobats of Agra

LoveReading4Kids Says

Longlisted for the UKLA Book Award 2022 ages 11-14

Three children, and a tiger, must make their way alone across India while the chaos and violence of the 1857 Rebellion rages around them. The three are very different: Bea is the orphaned child of English parents, desperately searching for her baby brother; Jacques is French, formerly part of a circus double act, and accompanied by another circus performer, tiger Tonton; and Pingali, third orphan, formerly a servant to the Governor of Agra, now out on his own.

They meet all kinds of dangers but see them through in the spirit of Jacques’ favourites, the three Musketeers, ‘all for one, and one for all’. The three – four if you include Tonton – are great characters and their adventures are always credible, no matter the scale of the dangers they face.

Robin Scott-Elliot does a great job of depicting the landscape of India and the political background to their adventures too. All in all, this is up there with a trip to the circus for thrills and breath-taking excitements.

Reviewed by Andrea Reece
Andrea Reece has spent almost her entire working life in children’s books, first as publisher, latterly as consultant, project manager and critic.
More reviews by Andrea Reece

About The Acrobats of Agra

Agra 1857, the Indian rebellion. Three children are trying to make their way through a country at war with a circus tiger in search of safety. Jacques is a boy acrobat who has lost his circus; Beatrice ( Bea) and Ping are both orphans.

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