Circus children

A peek into an exotic world in two photo-illustrated children's books

The titular character from Circus Child. Photos by Anna Riwkin-Brick, written by Astrid Lindgren.

After I wrote about the enchanting photobooks for children by Jill Krementz (A Very Young Dancer and its sequels) I became curious why the children’s photobook or photo-illustrated book is so rare nowadays. I’m talking books where entire photographs are the stars of the show—not books where photographs are chopped and remixed, such as in the busy layouts of a typical children’s visual encyclopedia.

In The First Picture Book for Children, children were treated to elegant images of everyday objects.

This picture of toast from The First Picture Book for Children suggests why photographs have been said to struggle to present young children with a canonical view of an object, even with careful composition. Would there be satisfying way to present that toast?

Turns out that type of photo-illustrated book never really was a true genre for children in the U.S.; more like a method that was employed from time to time due to unusual circumstances. Like, say, your father is a famous photographer (The First Picture Book for Children (1930)); you are an artist who has been photographing dolls and someone suggests putting a kid’s book together (The Lonely Doll (1957)); or you are adapting your own film (The Red Balloon (1967)).

The Lonely Doll has had a second life thanks to interest in the unusual circumstances of its author and a contemporary reading of the book as “creepy” in a way that paralleled the author’s life. This is a colorized image of the original cover.

Scene from The Lonely Doll. Wright posed her models with fishing wire.

The Red Balloon is an adaptation of the French short film from 1956 of the same name. The short won an Academy Award and became an American classroom staple, a singular feat for foreign, live action short film.

If you’re interested in more on the topic of photo-illustrated books for children, the writer and photography curator David Campany discussed this type of book in Source in 2008. And here is an interview with the photographer Alex Soth, who collects such books.

In the case of Jill Krementz, the reason the photo-illustrated picture books came together was that Krementz, already an accomplished photojournalist, was interested in the world of children. And it so happens there is a Swedish series with a similar origin, well-known abroad but not in the States. It is called Children’s Everywhere, or Children of the World, and was illustrated with photographs by the Russian-born Swedish photojournalist Anna Riwkin-Brick.

As with Krementz’s books, each book in Children’s Everywhere follows an individual child and illuminates daily life. But where Krementz’s books featured real, “as told to” style first-person narration, the Children’s Everywhere series used fictionalized stories designed to educate children on daily life in other cultures. And where Krementz spotlighted talented children working on careers in the arts or sports, Children’s Everywhere focused on more typical experiences.

There was one point of notable overlap, though: Both series feature a child born into a circus family. Jill Krementz’s A Very Young Circus Flyer (1979); Anna Riwkin-Brick’s Circus Child (1960), with a story by Astrid Lindgren, the Swedish colossus of children’s literature. (You can read by Flyer and Circus Child free on the Internet Archive.) Of all the photo-illustrated books I discovered in my search after discovering Jill Krementz, Circus Child is my favorite.

Here is the hardworking Tato (Armando Farfan, Jr.), the youngest member of his family’s trapeze act.

The young “Lilibet” (or “Sonja” in the English version), who lived in a traveling circus caravan with her family.

Vintage copies of both books (now out of print) would make wonderful gifts for a young circus enthusiast. A Very Young Circus Flyer is aimed at a middle grades reader, dense with behind-the-scenes detail about the daily rhythms of the life of a circus performers. Their house is on a train! The book emphasizes the long preparation and training that goes into the circus acts, like fact that the lions must be fed with bottles when they are babies, to make them easier to handle. In case you were wondering: “It takes forever to teach a dog how to ride a motorcycle.”

Armando (“Tato”) Farfan, Jr., the boy who was the very young circus flyer, grew up, and stayed connected to the circus world. Now he is an artist and costume designer based in Las Vegas, with specialty in wings for Victoria’s Secret angels, Gaga, and other showgirls. His company is Living Art of Armando. They do custom work, should the Claire Danes Romeo + Juliet / Jules from Euphoria angel wings be a dream of you or a tween you know.

Speaking of showgirls, here is a down moment captured in A Very Young Circus Flyer that makes me curious about what didn’t make it into the book.

Tato’s brother Gino, pictured here, was a gifted flyer, and his exceptional tricks are referenced in the book. He suffered severe injuries after slipping from the trapeze in 1982, but is still involved in flying. Gino appears to give trapeze lessons—maybe DM would work?

For the littler ones with big-top fever and the budding horse girls, Lindgren and Riwkin-Brick’s Circus Child is a charming option. The book has Lindgren’s trademark empathetic, realist perspective on children. It’s an underdog tale—five year old Lilibet (Sonja) dreams of becoming an circus equestrienne, but has a bossy playmate, Leo, who won’t quit telling her she’ll never be a rider. Will she overcome his put-downs? In her final, triumphant words: “Of course I can ride.”

The book’s triumphant final note moved me!

If you’re looking to pair the books with another circus gift, you’ll have an embarrassment of riches these days. Our favorite maximalist dress-up shop is Tutu du Monde is doing a range of circus and harlequin options. The plastic-free, eco-conscious brands are also in on the game: German natural doll-makers Nanchen have an all-natural sweet clown doll and clown rattle; Grimm’s has a classic wooden elephant pull-toy in a striking blue; and Sarah’s Silks is selling a sweet circus gift set with a rattan circus-tent basket and solid wooden animal performers.

For the natural wooden toy industry, the circus is always in style. Grimm’s Spiel und Holz elephant pull toy is made from sustainably sourced limewood, felt, and leather, and uses water-based dyes.

.