Staff Pick
The best picture books live just a little to the left of weird and inexplicable. Circle, like its predecessors Triangle and Square, is one such bizarre delight. I hope Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen make books together forever. Recommended By Sarah R., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
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.
Review
"Circle’s story offers a moment of genuine fright; watching Circle consider other possibilities reminds readers that calm analysis can master fear." Publishers Weekly
Review
"Klassen’s...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
Review
"With each shapes outing Klassen outdoes himself on doing much with little...[and] sets a high-water mark of minimalism that will be hard to beat but that works effortlessly and comedically within context." Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books (Starred Review)
About the Author
Mac Barnett is the author of numerous books for children, including five illustrated by Jon Klassen: Square; The Wolf, the Duck, and the Mouse, an E. B. White Read-Aloud Award winner; Triangle; Sam and Dave Dig a Hole, an E. B. White Read-Aloud Award winner and a Caldecott Honor Book; and Extra Yarn, which received a Caldecott Honor and a Boston Globe–Horn Book Award. Mac Barnett lives in California.
Jon Klassen is the author-illustrator of I Want My Hat Back, an E. B. White Read-Aloud Award winner and a Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor Book; This Is Not My Hat, winner of the Caldecott Medal and the Kate Greenaway Medal; and We Found a Hat. He is also the illustrator of two Caldecott Honor books, Sam and Dave Dig a Hole and Extra Yarn, both written by Mac Barnett. Jon Klassen lives in Los Angeles.