THE IRON CIRCUS

In Howe’s debut middle-grade novel, a bored boy finds adventure in a nighttime circus.

Lewis Bokurtz is not having a good summer. While his parents are at work, he spends his days being looked after by Mr. Butterfield, a retired teacher who forces Lewis to do schoolwork and whose idea of a good time is having a picnic in the basement. Distraught that he can’t go to summer camp like his friends, Lewis convinces Mr. Butterfield to take him fishing at a nearby pond. They don’t catch any fish, but Lewis finds a coin with the phrases “IRON CIRCUS” and “ADMIT ONE” stamped on either side. That night, Lewis awakes to the sound of eerily cheerful music echoing from the fields beyond his house. He sneaks out and follows the sound through a coin-operated gate to the largest tent he’s ever seen—constructed, strangely, of iron. Inside, a group of performers is preparing for the big show: a strongman, a fire breather, a tiger trainer, a slightly sinister ringmaster, and others. They all seem desperate for Lewis’ help, so much so that he comes back the next night. As Lewis becomes enmeshed in the Iron Circus and its mysteries, he’s forced to confront some of his greatest fears. Howe’s prose perfectly captures the magic and menace of a circus performance, particularly when viewed through the eyes of a child: “It went on for some minutes, this dazzling confluence of dancing, color, lights, music, acrobatics and fire….” The story is episodic, with Lewis lurching from one dreamlike adventure to another, with only a spine of narrative to connect them. Even so, there’s something darkly memorable about the Iron Circus and its ringmasters—both the fictional one in the novel and the inventive author at work behind the scenes.

An addictively odd middle-grade novel set in a stylized world of circus folk.