Cassie Beasley

Blue Montgomery's father dumps him at his grandmother's house in Muddy Branch for the summer, and Blue's not the only visitor; relations of all kinds descend on the house, all hoping to learn a family secret from matriarch Ma Myrtle. Each member of the Montgomery clan has a different fate or curse; Blue's fate is to lose competitions of skill, and his father's is to win. Can Blue change his fate?

Lily "Tumble" Wilson is privately atoning for causing her heroic older brother's death. Her show more guide is a book by Maximal Star called How to Hero Every Day; one gets the feeling that Maximal Star is a washed-up Gilderoy Lockhart (Harry Potter & the Chamber of Secrets) type. Tumble's devotion to the book is also reminiscent of Flora's in Flora & Ulysses. Optimistic Tumble doesn't believe in curses at first, but presented with overwhelming evidence, she changes tack; they will just have to break Blue's curse.

Blue's grandmother, father, and cousins, Tumble's parents, and a few locals provide lots of color and advice, although when the red moon rises, Tumble and Blue still sneak out through the swamp together.

Just the right amount of magic.

See also: Born Weird by Andrew Kaufman (adult fiction)

Quotes

...the idea of world where a person could literally be cursed, no matter what he did or how hard he tried, offended every last bit of her. (Tumble, 95)

"Sometimes, people would rather give you money then other, harder things."
"Like what?"
"Like their time. Don't go asking for money when what you want is something more valuable, Blue." (Granny Eve and Blue, 107)

"What if breaking one curse broke all of them?" (Howard, 177)

"Sometimes being afraid of losing is worse than actually losing." (Blue, 218)

"Why people do what they do always matters." (Granny Eve to Blue, 254)

"I've never been sure [your dad] got one of the good fates. It's just as much a curse to my way of thinking. If things have always come easily to you, you don't know how to deal with trouble when it finally catches up." (Granny Eve to Blue, 255)

"Do you want to know my favorite thing about Tumble?"
She didn't answer.
"Tumble always believes there's a way to fix things." (Blue & Tumble, 296)

Making it all about me. When the boogeyman has always been you. (golden alligator, 300)

Another curiosity of the human imagination - this idea that you can un-break something. Piece the fragments of shell together and put the egg back in its nest if you like. What's inside will never fly. (301)

Maybe he and Tumble had broken a curse. Or two. Maybe they'd done something bigger than that. But even if they'd only wasted a great fate, it had been their decisions that mattered, and Blue thought they had made good ones. (388) show less

This was such an AMAZING read.
Honestly, I didn't know what I was missing.

I remember seeing this when it first came out, it even made the school reading lists in my area, and while the title gave be pause, and the cover caught my eye, I never picked it up. Bad reader, BAD! Unbeknownst to me, there was a magical world inside with stories to be shared, adventures to be had, awful truths to be revealed, tears to be shed, and hearts to be mended. I almost broke down several times when Grandpa show more Ephraim and Micah were together. Each conversation, each revelation, I could feel what was coming, sense the pulling away, and the inevitable approaching, and yet, much like Micah, I HOPED, I crossed my fingers, I BELIEVED. The tragic histories we end up privy to are beyond measure, but also teach valuable lessons of humility, appreciation, the blessings of giving back, and the power of belief.

It's a wonderful read for the Middle Grade set and beyond, filled to the brim with promise, hope, mystery, and an underlying vein of love that will never die.


**copy received for review; opinions are my own show less

Sweet, sad, & funny, Circus Mirandus successfully ties loss, friendship, and magic together in a knot every bit as wonderful as the ones tied by 11-year-old protagonist Micah Tuttle.

Micah's Grandpa Ephraim has raised Micah since his parents died when he was very young. He's a loving, if slightly permissive, guardian who tells Micah stories of a magical circus he visited as a young boy during the war. (World War II? There's a vague, timeless quality to Grandpa Ephraim's stories that initially show more conjured images of England, but they're apparently in New England.) Unfortuantely, Grandpa Ephraim is dying. Although it's never stated directly, his symptoms sound like emphysema.

Grandpa Ephraim's truly awful sister has come to live with them and, when the inevitable finally happens, she'll be taking Micah to live with her in Arizona, on the other side of the country. Great-aunt Gertrudis (GERTRUDIS!) is an AA (awful adult) along the lines of the Dursleys or a Roald Dahl antagonist. My 9-year-old was ready to throw down by Chapter 2. Although some of the reasons for her awfulness are explained later in the book, she remains bitter and cruel beyond explanation.

As Micah begins to realize that the stories about Circus Mirandus may actually be true, he's aided in his quest to save his grandfather by Jenny Mendoza, a new girl at his school with whom he's supposed to do a class project. Although Jenny is a bit uptight, she's smart and loyal, and pretty darn amazing -- a bit of a Hermione.

I just realized that I've referenced HP twice in this review, and that the main character is an 11-year-old orphan, and that magic is a big part of the story, but this is in no way derivative of HP. It's a cozy little story that focuses more on relationships, rather than an epic tale of good and evil. show less

I could tell right away that this was going to be a great book.

"Four small words. That was all it took to set things in motion. The words came from an upstairs room filled with the rustle of paper and the sweet stink of medicine. They came from the pen of an old man who coughed and wheezed with every breath. They came at the end of a very important letter which said this:

(You have to read the book to see what he said.)

"Here, the old man paused. He read over what he had written. His pen show more glinted in the the yellow lamplight as he added the final line. 'I need you now.'"

Micah's grandfather Ephraim is dying. In the opening scene he writes a letter to a magician he met at the Circus Mirandus when he was a boy. He calls the magician the Lightbender. Many years ago Ephraim had performed a knot trick for the Lightbender and in appreciation he decided to grant Ephraim a miracle. Instead of taking the miracle, he saved it. Now, when he can no longer get out of bed, he wants to cash in his miracle.

Lightbender receives the message, but refuses to fulfill the miracle. As luck would have it, the Circus Mirandus is coming to town and Micah intends to call on the Lightbender personally to ask him to visit his grandfather. Micah is sure that his grandfather wants the Lightbender to save his life. In order to succeed in this task, he will have to sneak out and fool his cranky great aunt Gertie who has come to take care of her dying brother. Aunt Gertie and Micah do not get along. Micah visits the circus with his new friend Jenny who is a true and special friend, but she doesn't believe in magic.

In the end, being saved from death was not his grandfather's wish, and so the ending is sad. In fact, the entire book is sad, because his grandfather is dying during the entire story. Some people may not like the book because of that. The writing is fantastic, far above average for a children's author. In fact, I would expect this to be one children's book that adults would love. Unfortunately, I can't be sure that children will like this book. The writing, as good as it is, might not be received as well by the younger crowd. It's too bad because this book is medal worthy. show less