CHILDREN’S book of the week

CIRCLE by Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen, Walker Books, £12.99 (ebook £8.88) ★★★ ★★

THE third in a series (we’ve so far had stories from Triangle and Square) this tale for smaller children focuses on Circle.

Circle has a beautiful waterfall but warns her friends not to hide behind it when they play hide and seek.

Triangle duly disappears behind the sheet of pale green water, into the darkness, and Circle must set off to rescue him. Fears, friendship and rule-breaking abound, and the illustrations are as beautiful as you’d expect from artist Jon Klassen, although there are whole pages blank, with all but the whites of Triangle and Square’s eyes showing.

These are obviously less impressive. Not as dynamic, wry or poignant as last year’s witty Square, but a decent bedtime read nonetheless.