Little Kit: Or, the Industrious Flea Circus Girl

by Emily Arnold McCully

In hopes of a better life, a young orphan girl disguises herself as a boy and goes to work for the cruel Professor Malefetta and his flea circus

Genres: Picture Books

32 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Emily Arnold McCully received the Caldecott Medal for Mirette on the High Wire. The illustrator of more than 40 books for young readers, she divides her time between Chatham, New York, and New York City.

Reviews

[Josiah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Little Kit is a terrific synergy of great art and great story, as author/illustrator Emily Arnold McCully shows, once again, that she is one of the best picture book creators around.

Little Kit is a good, solid narrative, but it has more depth than many offerings like it due to the fact that the entire scenario is grounded in an authentic historical backdrop. There really were kids like Kit living on the poor streets of London in Victorian England, struggling just to get enough food to stay alive, and fighting also against the wiles of manipulative shysters who would use unattached children for free manual labor. This is just the situation in which Kit finds herself when she latches on to a traveling flea circus, but finds it to be nothing like what she had hoped.

By happenstance, Kit finds a wealthy girl named Nell, and the two girls from such different situations form a fast bond under the wary and watchful eye of Kit's menacing boss, Professor Malefetta. Can Kit ever escape from practical slavery to find freedom with a family that really wants her?

The feelings and dreams of an orphaned girl are shown with true style and sensitive grace in this worthwhile book. I would recommend it.

[Miss Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

gr K-3 Illustrated Fiction

Victorian London. Little Kit, an orphan, feels sorry for the fleas in Professor Malefetta's flea circus. She wonders if there is someplace where she and the fleas could be free.

Learning about the flea circus was interesting. Glad that Kit and the fleas were able to find a safe home.

[Tara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pictures are lovely (as always in a McCully book), but the story doesn't make much sense. More detail about the fleas and the flea circus would add interest.