Circle [Hardcover]

A New York Times bestseller!

Part of the Shapes Trilogy, the books that inspired Shape Island from Apple TV+

Multi-award-winning, New York Times best-selling duo Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen deliver the final wry and resonant tale about Triangle, Square, and Circle.

This book is about Circle. This book is also about Circle’s friends, Triangle and Square. Also it is about a rule that Circle makes, and how she has to rescue Triangle when he breaks that rule. With their usual pitch-perfect pacing and subtle, sharp wit, Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen come full circle in the third and final chapter of their clever shapes trilogy.With each shapes outing Klassen outdoes himself on doing much with little; in this case, the succession of spreads that go from gloomy to inky black, with only eyes to represent the characters, sets a high-water mark of minimalism that will be hard to beat but that works effortlessly and comedically within context. The book concludes by inviting the audience to join the shape friends in imagining what the being in the cave could be. That suggestion, issued with a light touch, moves deftly on from the story’s summation without breaking the mood, so even kids resistant to more didactic entreaties may be enticed to join the characters as they wonder.
—Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books (starred review)

Square and Triangle have had their turns. Now, in the final volume of Barnett and Klassen’s shapes trilogy, Circle’s the hero...Circle’s story offers a moment of genuine fright; watching Circle consider other possibilities reminds readers that calm analysis can master fear.
—Publishers Weekly

Illustrator Klassen's watercolor, graphite, and digitally created illustrations are evocative in theil“)