THE FARMER AND THE CIRCUS

Frazee’s third installment in her wordless picture-book series is a family affair.

Frazee uses the frontmatter to begin her tale as, on the title page, the clown child who met the farmer in the trilogy’s first installment is shown rejecting a motherly clown’s offering of a clown suit. Instead, the child chooses the farmerlike outfit donned in Book 1 and is wearing it when the monkey protagonist of Book 2 reappears with items from the farmer’s abode. It’s a happy reunion of monkey and child, whose play evokes their times on the farm. Their joy is eclipsed only by the eventual appearance of the doting farmer, who comes to the circus after the little clown’s community of performers raises the big top on the prairie. The real drama takes place outside the tent, however, when romance blooms between the farmer and the clown’s mother as they bond over juggling, music, dancing, and pie. At the book’s end, the foursome leaves the circus and heads home to the farmer’s house, which Frazee depicts bathed in a rosy sunset, the landscape embellished with flowers. It’s a happily-ever-after sort of ending, though some readers may be weary of depictions of monkeys as quasi-children, and others may wonder why the farmer didn’t join the circus instead of relocating everyone to his home. (This book was reviewed digitally with 8.3-by-20.6-inch double-page spreads viewed at 19.3% of actual size.)

The circus train stops here after a good run.