2,231 bytes added
, 20:43, 11 March 2010
{{infobox
|title=My Circus
|author=Xavier Deneux
|reviewer=Keith Dudhnath
|genre=For Sharing
|summary=An utterly gorgeous board book that everyone will love to pore over, from the very youngest right on up.
|rating=4.5
|buy=Yes
|borrow=Yes
|isbn=978-1408807002
|hardback=1408807009
|pages=24
|publisher=Bloomsbury
|date=April 2010
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408807009</amazonuk>
|amazonus=<amazonus>1408807009</amazonus>
|website=http://www.bloomsbury.com/childrens/authors/details.aspx?tpid=10830
}}
After the gorgeous [[My Animals by Xavier Deneux|My Animals]] comes ''My Circus''. It's a minimalist board book, looking at clowns, acrobats and elephants. It oozes style from every pore, with its fake black suede cover, its black, white and red illustrations, and its clever use of holes in the pages. A zebra's stripes on one page become an juggler's stripy trousers on another, and so on.
''My Circus'', just like ''My Animals'' before it, is one of those books that's aesthetically delightful. It grabs your attention the moment you see it, and it'll immediately have everyone oohing and ahhing over it. Its content more than lives up to the promise of the book as an object. Such is its quality that it will be enjoyed by the very youngest children (its prime audience), right through to those learning to read for themselves. Every adult who sees it will say "Ooh, what a beautiful book." Betcha.
I could never grow tired of Xavier Deneux's illustrations. Their minimalism is perfectly crafted, rather than being basic for basic's sake. Each page just has one word, and a picture of that thing. It takes an awful lot of skill to make something so simple so wonderful. ''My Circus'' might not offer anything new over and above ''My Animals'', but it's an absolute joy to read. I'm sure any further follow-ups will be equally wonderful, and I can't wait to see them. Highly recommended.
My thanks to the publishers for sending it to Bookbag.
If you're after another beautiful book, check out [[Abc 3d by Marion Bataille]] and [[Not A Box by Antoinette Portis]]. For circus-based fun, you'll enjoy [[The Circus Ship by Chris Van Dusen]].
{{amazontext|amazon=1408807009}} {{waterstonestext|waterstones=6925786}}
{{commenthead}}