CIRCUS GIRL

A young girl dreams of being a circus star in this British import.

Posters of trapeze artists adorn Sky’s walls, and she sleeps under a comforter patterned with big-top tents and colorful balloons. “She dreams of clowns, / She dreams of acrobats, / She dreams of stardust; / All the fun of the circus!” In this dream, a diverse troupe of performers makes music and performs stunts, one of them a figure in a wheelchair. However, a persistent voice keeps interrupting: “Get up Sky!” and “Hurry up Sky!” Sky, who has brown skin and straight, black hair, eventually wakes and heads out to start her day. This is when readers get a glimpse that there just might be reality behind this dream. There is a big top in the background, and the school Sky heads to from her trailer is another one, with “SCHOOL” on its door. Sky is a circus performer after all! Camp infuses the art with circus enthusiasm: Sky balances towers of school books in each hand (juggling and tumbling texts are mixed in), and at breakfast, a pyramid of coffee cups take center stage on the table. Overall, the reveal is fun, but while readers will enjoy seeing that the figures from Sky’s dreams inhabit her reality as well, dragging it out over 11 pages serves to deflate rather than increase excitement.

This twist on dreams coming true goes on a bit too long.