"Relegated to working with the clowns, [Pete] spends his spare time sparring with his nemesis, Rita the chimpanzee, and befriending the circus's newest animal—a wild bear that, it turns out, will only talk to Pete. When the ringleader decides to give Fremont to a zoo, Pete and Rita form an unlikely alliance to save him and to get Pete back in the spotlight. Tripp's strength is in the way she keeps the plot moving along while revealing interesting behind-the-scenes details of circus life. Pete and Rita's bickering isn't too far from the playground, and there's a wink of humor in the way Pete views his trainers as 'pretty bright, as people go.' The bear and the poodle go on parallel journeys as Fremont chooses to make the best of a bad situation and Pete chooses to overlook his own interests to be a good friend."—School Library Journal