Draft:Circus Mirandus

Circus Mirandus

Author	Cassie Beasley
Illustrator	Diana Sudyka
Cover artist	Manuel Sumberac, Andrew Bannecker, Samira Iravani, Oriol Vidal (French edition)
Language	English
Series	Circus Mirandus Series
Publisher	Dial Books
Publication date	2015-06-01
Publication place	United States of America
ISBN	978-0-525-42843-5
Followed by	The Bootlace Magician

Circus Mirandus is the debut novel by American author Cassie Beasley, published in 2015. It is a middle-grade fantasy story about Micah Tuttle, an orphaned 10-year-old boy, who lives with his grandfather Ephraim in the fictional town of Peal. After Ephraim's illness bed bounds him, he reveals the truth of the childhood stories Micah grew up hearing of the mysterious circus Ephraim had visited once as a child. He asks for the miracle he is owed from The Man Who Bends Light, a powerful circus magician he met decades ago. The details of Ephraim's miracle are not revealed to the reader nor Micah himself until the final chapter.

The book was published by Dial Books, which is owned by parent company Penguin Group, a British-American publishing conglomerate headquartered in London. Circus Mirandus was sold to Dial books after a five-publisher bidding war and was received to critical acclaim, becoming a Notable Children's Book of 2015 from the New York Times Book Review. The novel was a 2016 finalist in the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award and was recommended for the 2016 Charlotte Huck Award. It was a Goodreads Choice Award nominee for Reader's Favourite Debut Goodreads Author and New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice.

Stone Village's Scott Steindorff pre-emptively acquired the film and television rights for Circus Mirandus four months before the novel's publication, with Russel Dravis, Jason Dravis and Elena Giovinazzo negotiating on behalf of Beasley.

In October 2019, a sequel titled The Bootlace Magician was published.

Premise

Magic exists in the 21st century and Circus Mirandus has existed for millenniums to bring magic to children around the world. Micah Tuttle's grandfather is dying, but Micah believes the powerful Lightbender from the circus will save him.

Plot summary

Using alternating focuses of third-person perspective, the story switches between the past and present of Ephraim's youth and Micah's journey to entering the circus. The novel begins with Ephraim, bedbound and sick, writing to the Lightbender (derived from The Man Who Bends Light) about his miracle. Micah sneaks into his bedroom and learns his Circus Mirandus stories were real. Decades ago, Ephraim had been promised a miracle and he plans to use it as his health deteriorates. Micah is kicked out of the room by Gertrudis, Ephraim's caretaker and his younger sister, who is also apathetic towards the Tuttle family's generational hobby of knot-tying.

The next morning, the messenger parrot Chintzy returns to the circus in Bolivia with Ephraim's message awaiting, but the Lightbender immediately orders her to fly back with more questions for his miracle. Here, the story jumps back in time to Ephraim as a 10 year old during an unspecified war. While playing hooky at the beach, Ephraim follows the mysterious music of pipes and drums. In the present, Micah panics over his forgotten history homework with the newcomer, Jenny Mendoza, but accidentally ties a knot with memories of a dying Ephraim instead of an Inca quipu. During Jenny's confrontation, he struggles to explain his forgotten project work. She pulls him into a closet for privacy where he confesses Ephraim's illness and his hope for the Lightbender to cure his grandfather. Jenny consoles him despite disbelieving the immortal circus' existence.

The story reverts to the past where Ephraim follows the music from the beach to the circus in a meadow. He meets the ticket-taker and exchanges a fish stuck in his boot from stepping into seawater earlier, earning him a rare week-long ticket. Ephraim explores attractions and visits the beautiful Amazing Amazonian Bird Woman's aerial performances several times, while growing increasingly curious of a mysterious black tent covered with golden sun motifs. When it opens, he enters to watch The Man Who Bends Light perform. The story returns to the present, where Micah returns to overhear Gertrudis's conversation on the phone about her closer return to Arizona with Ephraim's death approaching. Outraged, Micah snaps at her, ending with him being kicked out of the house and a retreat to the half-finished treehouse. Later, Jenny unexpectedly appears with food and library books. They spend the night in the treehouse tying the quipu and researching Circus Mirandus. Upon Chintzy's return on the Lightbender's orders, she creates a commotion, but she shoots into the chimney before Micah can inquire of the miracle.

The story returns to Ephraim witnessing the Lightbender's performance. In its finale, Ephraim's request to see his father is intervened by the Lightbender's warning before he grants his request with a phantasm of Obadiah returning home with medals. For this, Ephraim attends all of the Lightbender's shows. On the ticket's expiration date, he stays behind to give thanks for the experience. Due to nerves. he asks to show the Lightbender a bootlace magic trick knot, an experience the surprised magician took seriously. Later, both talk, and the Lightbender offers him a miracle to be granted within his power. To his surprise, Ephraim asks to save the miracle for another time before leaving.

Back in the present, Chintzy's attempts to steal Jenny's food results in entanglement with the sleeping bag, and Micah has to untangle them both from the zipper. In the morning, Micah and Jenny rush to school to present their Inca quipu project in class. While scribbling in worry at the lack of answers from the circus, the wind rises impossibly within the classroom, and Micah's scribble unfurls to spell instructions to find the circus at midnight. At the same time, Chintzy returns after the circus' arrival to Peal. The Lightbender's attempts to ignore her fails when she reveals that "Victoria" was spotted in Ephraim's bedroom pictures, but he disbelieves Micah's relation to her.

That night, Ephraim gifts Micah the same bootlace used to show the Lightbender his magic trick decades ago, and he wears it for luck. Later, Jenny requires convincing to see the circus as only believers are able to enter the compound. Geoffrey (ticket-taker) declares their ticket (a failed Inca quipu Micah tied) an invitation to Circus Mirandus. Bowler, the Strongman standing guard outside the Lightbender's tent refuses them entry before his scheduled performance, instead informing of the circus' manager's request to meet them in the menagerie first. A giant fish with Ephraim's name on a plaque is the central attraction, implying to had been his ticket decades prior. They meet the manager, Mirandus Head, who is offended by Jenny's stubborn scientific praise for his circus' magic.

Micah drags her back to the Lightbender's tent to meet the magician with Chintzy's help. Their talk goes awkwardly, with Micah stating his hope for the magician to cure Ephraim. The magician invites them to watch his performance to clarify his point better. An ongoing disagreement between the Lightbender and Chintzy ignites before the parrot directly questions Micah's connection to "Victoria". She is revealed it be Micah's estranged grandmother. It is divulged that Victoria was banished as the Amazing Amazonian Bird Woman after her revengeful final performance, and the Lightbender mentally blocked her magic from herself. She had kept a low profile since her disappearance, along with her later marriage with Ephraim. While watching the Lightbender's performance later, Micah realizes the Lightbender's magic are illusions, and he cannot cure Ephraim. Micah leaves with Jenny in tow, who is convinced of magic after witnessing the Lightbender's performance. They visit the healer Rosebud for medicine before rushing home.

When Micah returns home, he sneaks into Ephraim's bedroom to give Rosebud's medicinal tea. Gertrudis discovers him after, but turns angry once she sees the bootlace on his wrist. They physically tussle for it, with Micah wrenching free and finally collapsing onto his bed to sleep. He awakens hours later to discover Ephraim dressed to take Micah out for a drive. Convinced Rosebud's tea had worked, they both spend the night watching movies and playing mini golf, before finally retiring to the treehouse in the morning to talk. As Ephraim slowly regresses to his previous state of malaise, he learns of his wife's true reasons for leaving the circus and Micah finds out why they married.

The war had ended shortly after Ephraim left the circus. With the grief of Ephraim's mother's death and Obadiah's dysfunctionality, he cared for Gertrudis starting at 19 years old. His belief in Circus Mirandus led to extensive efforts to track down the Lightbender to ask for his miracle of becoming a circus magician. The day Victoria was banished, they met on the road with Ephraim and Gertrudis heading for the circus. She deceived Ephraim into marriage and was adored by Gertrudis, who had believed in Circus Mirandus and Ephraim's stories of Victoria's flying performances (no reason was given for her magic disappearing). Years later, Victoria overcame the Lightbender's mental block to regain her magic and she tricked Gertrudis into jumping off the roof of their house. Ephraim arrived home to witness Victoria do nothing to stop his sister's fall despite a private display of her magic returning days prior. The incident severed Gertrudis' trust in Ephraim and he asks Victoria to leave. Months later, Micah's father is discovered crying on Ephriam's porch, with only a feather tucked in to mark him as Victoria's son.

In the treehouse, Micah ties a knot with yarn to represent his newfound friendship with Jenny, and Ephraim is able to perceive his memories by touching the knot. His malaise worsens into a coughing fit before he is rushed back into the house, where his health worsens rapidly in the living room. His doctor gently breaks the news of Ephraim's approaching death to Micah. Chintzy flies in to deliver Mirandus Head's decision of rejecting his requested miracle. Frustrated at his death bed, Ephraim tells Micah to return to the circus and bring the Lightbender to him.

Micah returns but is barred entry by Geoffrey and Bibi. Desperate, he ties himself to a large promotional balloons nearby to infiltrate the circus via aerial descent. He misses the timing to release and is forced to fall directly onto the Lightbender's tent instead. Micah tears a hole in the roof of the tent, crash-landing onto the illusionist and almost killing himself in the process. Wounded and concussed, he accidentally interrupted a performance but is urgently carried away by Bowler for medical attention after he tells the Lightbender that Ephraim would not accept a rejection to his miracle. Micah wakes up on the back of Big Jean the elephant, with the Lightbender sitting behind him on their way to his house. The Lightbender uses his illusions to hide themselves from others, and accidentally reveals Ephraim's requested miracle was unrelated to a cure. He explains his immortality as Mirandus Head's passive influence on the circus. Later, Ephraim dies in his sleep while holding hands with his grandson and the illusionist. On the way back to the circus, the Lightbender asks to borrow Micah's bootlace for an unspecified reason, which he complies. They arrive to the circus swarmed by adults and confused policemen. As the Lightbender rectifies the mess, Micah spends the afternoon with Jenny's family to avoid Gertrudis.

The Lightbender shows Micah's bootlace to other magicians and tells his wish to grant Ephraim's final request, which the manager rejected. Annoyed and pressured, Mirandus Head relents to the LIghtbender, with a condition attached. After Ephraim's funeral, Chintzy returns Micah's bootlace to him in the cemetery after everyone else had left, along with a farewell message from the Lightbender and a mysterious post-script hint. Micah ties a friendship bracelet for Jenny and declares his resolution to join the circus one day. Later when Gertrudis spots the bootlace on his wrist, he refuses to cut it off, but all communications cease between them at this point.

In the penultimate chapter, they sit in Gertrudis' car as a traffic jam builds up on the highway heading to Arizona. Micah hears the circus' music and investigates alone. He realizes a gaping chasm on the road caused the highway congestion, stretching for miles and halting all traffic movement. Inexplicably, the circus' music came from the chasm. After deciding between living with Gertrudis or believing in the Lightbender's post-script hint, Micah walks towards the chasm to see the magician himself and Big Jean waiting in a stretch of empty road beyond. While both leave on Big Jean's back, the Lightbender explains Ephraim's miracle had been a request for him to adopt Micah and teach him to use magic. Chintzy delivers Jenny's early homecoming message for Micah -- she had informed her of Micah's new induction into the circus as the Lightbender's ward. The book ends with the Lightbender's promise to find a way for Micah and Jenny to keep in touch whilst the circus moves through its worldwide tour, and Micah's enthusiasm for life in the circus.

Characters

• Micah Tuttle, the protagonist

• Jenny Mendoza, Micah's school friend
• Ephraim Tuttle, Micah's elderly grandfather
• Gertrudis Tuttle, Micah's great aunt and Ephraim's younger sister
• Victoria Starling, Micah's grandmother and Ephraim's estranged wife
• The Lightbender / The Man Who Bends Light, the circus' illusionist
• Chintzy, the Lightbender's messenger
• Mirandus Head, the circus' manager
• Bibi, Mirandus' animal companion
• Geoffrey, the circus' ticket-taker
• Rosebud, the circus' healer
• Porter, the circus' transportation magician
• Big Jean, the circus' intelligent elephant

Sources

• Spencer, Ingrid (2015). Circus Mirandus. The School Librarian Vol. 63, Iss. 4 - via ProQuest
• Bush, Elizabeth (2015). Review of the book Circus Mirandus, by Cassie Beasley. Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books Vol. 69, No. 1, p. 8. ISSN 0008-9036 - via Project Muse