The Midnight Circus

by Peter Collington

A young boy's favorite mechanical horse comes to life and carries him to a circus for a night of adventure and stardom.

Genres: Picture Books, Fantasy, Childrens

32 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1992

Reviews

[Hilary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Parts of this wordless picture book were lovely. A nice simple story about a little boy who is sad when a mechanical horse is taken away from a nearby shop. That night he dreams the horse takes him to a circus. The mechanical horse coming to life was a lovely idea, the circus was a little nightmarish. A huge caged gorilla was both sad and scary but later this turns out to be someone in a costume, so I was glad there were no wild animals involved in this circus The ending is nice but the story did have a melancholy and slightly dark feel.

Read on open library.

[Abigail · Rating 3 out of 5]

A young boy is deeply distraught when the play horse that stands outside of shop next door to his apartment building is taken down and replaced with a play rocket in this wordless picture-book from British artist Peter Collington. That night he dreams (or does he?) that the horse carries him to a midnight circus, where he and his equine friend become stars. The next day the boy awakens and finds that the kind shopkeeper has restored the horse to his proper place...

The fourth picture-book that I have read from Collington, and the third that is wordless, following upon On Christmas Eve and The Tooth Fairy , The Midnight Circus has the same beautiful, light-infused illustrations I have come to expect from this artist. The visuals are more than capable of carrying the story, and the whole book has a dream-like quality that is quite fitting, given the subject matter. I would recommend this one to fans of the artist, and of wordless picture-books, as well as to children who dream of having nighttime adventures. Those who are taken with the theme might also want to examine Etienne Delessert's Night Circus .

[Ceridwyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Peter Collinton wrote The Surfman, which I found brilliant. The Midnight Circucs is an sweet, old-fashioned predictable story. It was fine. It had a horse and a circus. It lacked the symbolism and open-ended wonder of "Surfman".

[Molly Cluff (Library!) · Rating 4 out of 5]

My husband was a bit traumatized when the truck took the horse away, haha

[Dana Lovell · Rating 3 out of 5]

No words but still tells a coherent story

[Kaitlyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was such a weird book...it had no words and it was strange, but I kind of enjoyed it.

[Siskiyou-Suzy · Rating 1 out of 5]

The cover suggests something magical. And to be fair, there are some photos that are nice. The rooftops, for instance. But from the get-go, I had the MST3K team in my head, trying to come up with funny captions. Then I felt bad because obviously a lot of work goes into something like this. But the illustrations are so terrible to look at. The buildings are on a whole nice to look at, but . . . it's the ugliness of the characters and the facial expressions. I mean, I don't need to see supermodels, but the people are so gosh darn unpleasant to look at. Why?

[Lindsey · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little boy dreams of going to a midnight circus on a mechanical horse that comes to life to join him in his act.

This wasn't one of my favorite wordless picture books. I think David Wiesner's books are definitely better. This seems like a pretty good book for primary grades since the little boy cries over a mechanical horse. I could see some high school boys definitely rolling their eyes over that.

[Felicity · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautifully illustrated book about a boy getting upset when the shopkeeper replaces the electronic horse he rides on with a rocket. This is a good book for young children as it is a picture book. However it is also sophisticated enough for adults.

[Lori · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book a wonderful fantasy with much intrigue and a delicately placed love story. I found myself not wanting to put the book down.

[Debby Baumgartner · Rating 3 out of 5]

A wordless book about a little boy who is upset that the coined operated horse outside the store is replaced by a rocket ship ride. He dreams of himself and the horse in the circus.