
Around the World in Eighty Days is an adventure novel by the French writer Jules Verne, first published in French in 1872. In the story, Phileas Fogg of London and his newly employed French valet Passepartout attempt to circumnavigate the world in 80 days on a £20,000 wager set by his friends at the Reform Club. It is one of Verne's most acclaimed works.

The Boy Who Swam with Piranhas is a 2012 book by David Almond. It is about a boy, Stanley, who runs away from home and joins the circus.
The Carnivorous Carnival is the ninth novel in the children's novel series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket.

The Catch Trap is a novel by Marion Zimmer Bradley, published in 1979. Set in the circus world of the 1940s and 1950s, it tells the story of two trapeze artists, Mario Santelli and Tommy Zane, and the professional relationship they develop which ultimately leads to love.

César Cascabel is a novel written by Jules Verne in 1890. It is part of Voyages Extraordinaires series. It was published in English in two-volume form, with subtitles "The Show on Ice" and "The Travelling Circus".

Circus is a novel written by the Scottish author Alistair MacLean. It was first released in the United Kingdom by Collins in 1975 and later in the same year by Doubleday in the United States.

The Circus Is Coming is a children's novel by Noel Streatfeild, about the working life of a travelling circus. It was first published in 1938 with illustrations by Steven Spurrier. For this novel, Streatfeild was awarded the annual Carnegie Medal from the Library Association, recognising the year's outstanding children's book by a British subject. American editions and some later British editions are titled Circus Shoes.

The Circus of Dr. Lao (1935) is a novel written by the American newspaperman and writer Charles G. Finney. It won one of the inaugural National Book Awards: the Most Original Book of 1935.

"The Circus of the Sun" is a poem by American poet Robert Lax (1915-2000). First published in 1959 by Journeyman Press it consists of a cycle of 31 short poems that tell the story of a traveling circus. The poem is included in the collections: 33 Poems (1987), Love Had a Compass (1997) and Circus Days and Nights (2000).

The Circus Surprise is a children's book written by Ralph Fletcher and illustrated by Vladimir Vagin. It was first published in 2001.

Elephant Song is a novel by Barry Longyear published in 1982.

Emerald Star is the 2013 sequel to Hetty Feather and Sapphire Battersea written by best-selling British author Jacqueline Wilson and illustrated by Nick Sharratt. The story starts with Hetty arriving at an inn in her late mother's old village a few weeks after the events of Sapphire Battersea.

Encore for Eleanor is a children's picture book written by Bill Peet about a circus elephant who loves the spotlight even after retirement. It was originally published in 1981 by the Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston.

The Funhouse is a 1980 novelization by American author Dean Koontz, based on a Larry Block screenplay, which was made into the 1981 film The Funhouse, directed by Tobe Hooper. As the film production took longer than expected, the book was released before the film.

Hetty Feather is a book by best-selling author Jacqueline Wilson. It is about a young girl who is abandoned by her mother at the Foundling Hospital as a baby and follows her story as she lives in a foster home before returning to the Foundling Hospital as a curious 5-year-old. There are more books to the "series" of Hetty Feather, these are recommended for ages 11–15, according to the author. CBBC created a TV series based on the book, with Isabel Clifton portraying Hetty. The programme was first aired in 2015. In the United States BYUtv has the US broadcast rights and began airing it in March 2018. The book is followed by Sapphire Battersea.

If I Ran the Circus is a children's book by Dr. Seuss, published in 1956 by Random House.

Mel Oliver and Space Rover on Mars is a science fiction novel by American writer William Morrison. It was published in 1954 by Gnome Press in an edition of 4,000 copies.

The Night Circus is a 2011 fantasy novel by Erin Morgenstern. It was originally written for the annual writing competition National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) over the span of three competitions. The novel has a nonlinear narrative written from multiple viewpoints.

Nights at the Circus is a novel by British writer Angela Carter, first published in 1984 and the winner of the 1984 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction. The novel focuses on the life and exploits of Sophie Fevvers, a woman who is – or so she would have people believe – a Cockney virgin, hatched from an egg laid by unknown parents and ready to develop fully fledged wings. At the time of the story, she has become a celebrated aerialiste, and she captivates the young journalist Jack Walser, who runs away with the circus and falls into a world that his journalistic exploits had not prepared him to encounter.

Nobody's Buddy is an American children's novel written by John A. Moroso and published in 1936 by Goldsmith Publishing Co. of Chicago, Illinois.

The Ringmaster's Secret is the thirty-first volume in the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories series. It was first published in late 1953 under the pseudonym Carolyn Keene. The actual author was ghostwriter Harriet Stratemeyer Adams.

Secret Heart is a 2001 story by David Almond. It is about a boy, Joe, and his involvement with a circus.
A Son of the Circus (1994) is a novel by American writer John Irving. It was a return to his first publisher, Random House, under whose imprint Irving's first three novels appeared.

Toby Tyler; or, Ten Weeks with a Circus is a children's novel by "James Otis", the pen name of James Otis Kaler.

Truevine: Two Brothers, a Kidnapping, and a Mother's Quest: A True Story of the Jim Crow South is a 2016 non-fiction book by American author Beth Macy. The book tells the story of George and Willie Muse, two African-American brothers who were kidnapped and forced to perform as sideshow attractions because they were albinos. Truevine was released on October 18, 2016 through Little, Brown and Company.

Water for Elephants is the third novel by the Canadian-American author Sara Gruen. The book was published in 2006 by Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill. The historical fiction novel follows a 20th century circus drama. Gruen wrote the book as part of the National Novel Writing Month.