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Children's Fiction Humorous Stories

Circle

by (author) Mac Barnett

illustrated by Jon Klassen

Publisher
Candlewick Press
Initial publish date
Mar 2019
Category
Humorous Stories, Size & Shape, Friendship
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9780763696085
    Publish Date
    Mar 2019
    List Price
    $22.99
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9781536228779
    Publish Date
    Mar 2023
    List Price
    $12.99

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Where to buy it

Recommended Age, Grade, and Reading Levels

  • Age: 5 to 9
  • Grade: k to 4

Description

Part of the Shapes Trilogy, the books that inspired Shape Island from Apple TV+
Multi-award-winning, New York Times best-selling duo Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen deliver the final wry and resonant tale about Triangle, Square, and Circle.

This book is about Circle. This book is also about Circle’s friends, Triangle and Square. Also it is about a rule that Circle makes, and how she has to rescue Triangle when he breaks that rule. With their usual pitch-perfect pacing and subtle, sharp wit, Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen come full circle in the third and final chapter of their clever shapes trilogy.

About the authors

 

 

Mac Barnett est un auteur classé au palmarès du New York Times pour ses livresjeunesse, dont Extra doux et Max et Sam creusent, creusent, creusent..., deux albums illustrés qui ont reçu des mentions d'honneur pour la médaille Caldecott. Mac est aussi l'auteur de la série à succès Terrible Two, illustrée par Jory John. Il habite en Californie.

 

Mac Barnett is the author of several books for children, including Extra Yarn, illustrated by Jon Klassen, a Caldecott Honor Book and winner of a Boston Globe-Horn Book Award; The Wolf, the Duck, and the Mouse, a New York Times bestseller; and Sam and Dave Dig a Hole, a Caldecott Honor Book and winner of the E. B. White Read Aloud Award, and The Important Thing About Margaret Wise Brown. He is the co-author, with Jory John, of the New York Times bestselling series The Terrible Two. Mac lives in California.

Mac Barnett's profile page

JON KLASSEN est le créateur de Rendez-moi mon chapeau!, classé numéro un au palmarès du New York Times et qui lui a valu le Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor, ainsi que des livres complémentaires Ce n’est pas mon chapeau, pour lequel il a reçu la médaille Caldecott et la médaille Kate Greenaway, et Nous avons trouvé un chapeau, nommé meilleur livre pour enfants de l’année par le Publishers Weekly. Il a aussi écrit et illustré Le rocher tombé du ciel et illustré Les trois boucs et le troll, Triangle, Carré et Cercle, Le loup, le canard et la souris et Max et Sam creusent, creusent, creusent… tous écrits par Mac Barnett. Originaire de Niagara Falls, Jon Klassen vit maintenant à Los Angeles.

 

 

Jon Klassen is an animator and Governor General's Award-winning creator of children's books. His book This Is Not My Hat won both the American Caldecott Medal and the British Kate Greenway Medal, making Jon the first person to win both awards for the same work. Jon was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and currently resides in Los Angeles.

Jon Klassen's profile page

Editorial Reviews

With each shapes outing Klassen outdoes himself on doing much with little; in this case, the succession of spreads that go from gloomy to inky black, with only eyes to represent the characters, sets a high-water mark of minimalism that will be hard to beat but that works effortlessly and comedically within context. The book concludes by inviting the audience to join the shape friends in imagining what the being in the cave could be. That suggestion, issued with a light touch, moves deftly on from the story’s summation without breaking the mood, so even kids resistant to more didactic entreaties may be enticed to join the characters as they wonder.
—Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books (starred review)

Square and Triangle have had their turns. Now, in the final volume of Barnett and Klassen’s shapes trilogy, Circle’s the hero...Circle’s story offers a moment of genuine fright; watching Circle consider other possibilities reminds readers that calm analysis can master fear.
—Publishers Weekly

Illustrator Klassen's watercolor, graphite, and digitally created illustrations are evocative in their muted palette and spare presentation...the implied message of the story is a vital one in this xenophobic age and its subtle delivery and imagery encourage further exploration.
—Kirkus Reviews

In typical Barnett-Klassen style, humor and light philosophical musings mingle to form a story that will entertain children and adults alike. Because much of the story takes place in darkness, readers are called upon to use their imaginations, making this oddball friendship tale an off-kilter treat...If you don't order extra copies of this dynamic duo's latest, their fans will get bent out of shape.
—Booklist

...the message is highly entertaining in its delivery, and Klassen’s understated work with light (and the absence of it), shadow, and texture carries the story full…circle.
—The Horn Book

Klassen paints a wonderfully mysterious backdrop of waterfall, concealing a dark cave behind it. His simple shapes with their stick legs and expressive eyes are full of personality. Barnett's subtle, witty text pokes gentle fun at the friends' foibles and fears in a way sure to appeal to children in the target age group.
—Buffalo News

Like Square and Triangle, Circle teaches shapes while challenging kids to think, in this case, about what they know and don't know.
—Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette

Offer[s] young readers plenty of opportunity to read their own ideas into the story, flex their imagination, and explore their own fear of the unfamiliar.
—New York Journal of Books

An elegant picturebook in which simple shapes and succinct story express big ideas. Here a game of hide-and-seek makes us consider, for starters, fear of strangers, the power of the imagination, being brave and standing by friends.
—The Sunday Times

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