Walking his dog one September evening, the narrator of this surreal picture-book encounters his cat Pluto driving an antique car. Attached to the car are ten wooden flatbeds, each one playing host to an unusual occupant. From the heads of three famous poets to the mad dogs howling off-key, from the lion jumping through a ring of fire to the black swan hissing at a company of dwarves, the scenes witnessed by the narrator are beautiful and dreamlike. They are his night circus...

I have encountered the artwork of Etienne Delessert before, in illustrated picture-book retellings of well-known fairy-tales, but Night Circus is the first book I have picked up where he was both author and artist. As I expected, I found the illustrations here quite appealing, with the stylized, surrealistic forms, and the artist's adept use of light, shadow, and color. That said, although the story concept is interesting, in that dream-like way, I'm not sure it makes enough of a narrative to really work, when reading to children. Perhaps I'm underestimating the child audience - something I rail against myself - but I do wonder how this one would actually work, in a story-time setting. Recommended chiefly to admirers of the artist, and to those looking for quirky, dream-like picture-books. ( )