Eloise Jarvis McGraw (1915–2000) was an American author of children's books and young adult novels. Her novels were named Newbery Honor Books three times in three different decades: Moccasin Trail in 1952, The Golden Goblet in 1962, and The Moorchild in 1997. A Really Weird Summer (1977) won an Edgar Award for Best Juvenile Mystery from the Mystery Writers of America, and Moccasin Trail received a Lewis Carroll Shelf Award in 1963. McGraw had a strong interest in history, and among her many books are the historical novels Mara, Daughter of the Nile; Master Cornhill; and The Striped Ships, in addition to Moccasin Trail and The Golden Goblet. She is also the author of the coming-of-age novel Greensleeves and The Seventeenth Swap, a light-hearted tale for younger children. McGraw contributed to the Oz series started by L. Frank Baum. Eloise Jarvis McGraw was married to William Corbin McGraw, and had two children, Peter and Lauren. She lived much of her life in Oregon, where her first novel, Sawdust in His Shoes, is set.
This yarn of a boy equestrian with circus in his blood has enough of the old tricks to keep any young person engrossed. Joe Lang, a black-haired gypsy of a boy forced from circus life by the death of his father and taken to an Industrial School, has the dark, brooding appeal of a superior being from a remote, romantic world confined to an unsympathetic grey one. Escaping from the school, Joe is taken in by a saintly farm family who make him one of them by gradually overcoming his fear and distrust of non-circus people….A good, hearty, full-blooded yarn, appealing to both boys and girls.
Kirkus Reviews
Every character in this book is warm, true and different from the others. The language is racy with circus talk and farm talk. The action is fast, funny and often moving…. A good book for children is a good book for any age and Sawdust in His Shoes belongs in that rare category.
