I was a tyrant when I was a kid. I would lead my crew of followers to the wilderness where we would pretend that civilization no longer existed, and we had to build it from the ground up. We made houses with piled rocks, worshipped dieties like Arnold Swartzenegger, and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and attacked parked cars with homemade spears. Being a kid was the best time of my life, Stephen V. Masse calls it a "Short Circus", because its the best show on Earth and over far too quickly. Thankfully, his superbly written novel about one child's outrageous summer is the kind of book that children and adults will both enjoy for different reasons.

Jem Lockwood is a rather typical kid. He has a group of friends, like most of us did, and they've all come under the tutelage of Jem's new Big Brother, from the local Big Brother Association, Jesse Standish. As the group take fun and adventurous trips to the circus, a fishing festival, and other summer time events, parallel plots between the boys and their new mentor unfold. The children discover that somebody has been sabotaging the lake, and embark on a Hardy Boys-like hunt to discover the culprit. Meanwhile, Jesse is down on his luck and struggling over the failing economy. He's forced to sell his house, and is worried about moving and the damage it may do with his relationship with his girlfriend. These combatting storyarches lend a kind of duality to the novel that's easy to miss amidst its' light humorous nature.

As the two stories inform one another, Jesse takes center stage. His dilemma over whether or not to move to California is seen through the eyes of Jem, but adult readers will see something more. Jesse is dealing with the loss of his father, signifying the absolute end to his own childhood, and he's facing the problems of adulthood that seem so much more significant. Yet, he continuously loses himself in the boys' struggle to solve the mystery. Children will love the book for the wit and the flair of Masse's language that makes broken bones sound cool and getting out and seeing the world a must-have adventure for themselves.