The Secret Circus
In this quiet and unassuming picture book, Wright dreams up a Parisian circus that is so itty-bitty and well hidden that only the mice know how to find it. Each spread teases this conceit out, morsel by morsel: “Only the mice know when to go there” shows a mouse family finishing up chores and growing excited; “Only the mice know what to wear” accompanies a scene of the family helping each other into their finest attire; “Only the mice know how to get there” shows them traveling across the city sky in a mini hot-air balloon, the Eiffel Tower sparkling in the distance. The mice are blobby and friendly, decked out in 1920s-era French styles of wide-brimmed hats and striped shirts. Dominated by muted browns and dark greens, the artwork is inviting and comforting with just a hint of mystery. The closing scene, in which a mouse slyly looks at the reader and shushes a finger, engenders a sense of inclusion in the mice’s little world, which children will recognize in their own family’s happy secrets. Preschool-Kindergarten. --Ian Chipman