Betti on the High Wire

Ten-year-old Babo has grown up on an abandoned circus camp in a war-torn country. She sleeps in the old lion cage and takes care of the other parentless “leftover kids,” telling them fantastical stories about the old circus days and finding ways to make them laugh. They need her. So Babo is not one single bit happy when an American couple wants to adopt her and change her name to Betti. How will her real parents ever find her all the way in America?
But soon crazy America is exactly where she is—with new parents and a little sister, weird food like snaky spooogetti, and all kinds of people speaking gobbledygook. Betti is determined to run away. She just has to find the perfect time . . .  

Heartbreaking and hilarious, Betti on the High Wire is a book about family, the meaning of home—and most of all, about one brave and imaginative (and completely unforgettable) little girl.

Lisa Railsback is an award-winning playwright and a bright new talent in the children’s book world. She worked in a refugee camp abroad, and then went on to work with refugees in the U.S. Betti on the High Wire is a book she wanted to write about the brave kids she met along the way. Lisa lives in Austin, Texas.