The Mysterious Circus

The Mysterious Circus (Hall Family Chronicles) This is a great book for all ages. If you begin with 'The Diamond in the Window" as I did as a teen, you will have a great introduction to the Hall Family. If you haven't read it, you will have no problems in getting to know them in this book as new developments in their personalities come forward. Jane Langton has a great talent for interweaving Transcendental logic through her books while spinning magic into the small lives of the Hall children while keeping notice of their normal childhood faults. In this, the reader is introduced to a simple and accepting attitude toward themselves as well as others. I especially recommend this book for children from age 10 and up. It would be nice for such an influence to be introduced to them through their own personal revelation while reading it. The 'Diamond in the Window' influenced me as a young teen and now that I'm a grandmother and reading the rest of the Hall Family Chronicles that I missed before, I've realized that I still adhere to the humanitarian viewpoints introduced to me earlier in my life from reading books such as these.

This book is yet another in Jane Langton's wonderful, imaginative and quirkily funny series about the Hall family. The children (the main focus of the book) are realistic & believable. Same with the adults. The plot centers around the creation of a circus using a combination of magic and the skills of a group of ordinary children who become extra - ordinary through their own efforts and self-realization. All this happens during an attempt to 'Disney-fy' a local park by a peculiar and sinister-but amusing villainess. Very enjoyable read.

Fans of the prior Diamond In The Window and other stories will find a new adventure revolving around Eleanor, Eddie and Georgie and their new friend Andy. And Uncle Krishna is back, too, adding his magic to the appearance of a mysterious circus with strange people and events. Langton is at her best in exploring the peculiar forms of magic Eleanor and her sibling are particularly vulnerable to, and The Mysterious Circus doesn't disappoint.