Circus Mirandus product reviews

The bright colours of circus Mirandus encourages young readers to pick the book up and open the pages. The cover with its sun lends a mysterious element. Within the first two pages the reader is drawn into the mysterious world of Circus Mirandus, as soon as a letter is penned its recipient miles away awakens in response... and a parrot comes to retrieve it. The star of the story is Micah who is currently in the custodial care of his Aunt, a sour woman who is making his existence miserable. The shining light in Micah's existence is his grandfather, he was Micah's caretaker until he got ill, leaving Micah to the care of his not so dotting aunt. The story steps back in time, secrets from when Micah's grandfather was a boy are shared, and hope beckons on Micah's horizon.

The book is well written, and helps the reader develop a sense of hope for Micah's quest, and the emotional ties strengthen as Micah encounters challenges along the way. One of which involves convincing a friend (Chintzy) to pretend that magic is real for a second... which she does... and suddenly she can see the circus and then even though she is walking through the circus that wasn't there a second ago her doubts creep in again, and she begins to rationalise what is right in front of her. Micah's resolve is strong though, his grandfather is depending on Micah to save his life, and that's exactly what Micah intends to do.

Micah ends up with Rosebud's potion, and there seems to be a little improvement in Grandpa's health, but is there time? Micah's Aunt has made up her mind its time to go back to Arizona, and Micah is to go with her... This book is a good read for children 10 - 14 years or anyone who likes books like Harry Potter or who likes the Percy Jackson series.

On the back cover of this book it says "This book in three words - Quirky, Magical, Heart-Warming". I do, indeed, agree with this choice of words, the characters are quirky, there's lots of magic and magical moments and it is certainly heart-warming in its moments. Micah lives with his grandfather, we know that something happened to his parents, but we never get any details and that doesn't subtract from the story at all, it is the relationship between grandfather and grandson that matters here and Micah's desperation to keep him alive otherwise he will end up having to move in with his aunt. Naturally, the stories he has grown up with are all true and soon Micah is on his own adventure.

Chintzy (LOVE the name and may use it one day for a pet) leaps off the age at you, full of attitude and so easy to imagine, as are all the characters that are mentioned, all with just enough information so as not to clog up the book but that you can picture them easily. The Lightbender is the mysterious, magical being that features heavily in this book and even though we have him so much, he still manages to remain largely mysterious and due to no description in the book it was easy to create my own, something I loved about the book.

The plot of this book is tried and true and I made an assumption early on as to where the story would take us and whilst I was correct when it came to certain aspects of character development within the story line there were still a few nice surprises going on and I rather enjoyed it all. I ended up settling down outside in the sun and reading this in a couple of hours whilst the kids entertained themselves. This was a fun distraction on a beautifully warm day and I have already recommended it to my mother.