Module 3: Mirette on the High Wire

Book Summary

In the Caldecott-winning book, Mirette on the High Wire, Mirette’s mother, the widowed Madame Gateau, owns a boardinghouse in Paris at which traveling players stay. Mirette helps her mother with the boardinghouse by cleaning and cooking. She also loves to listen to the travelers’ stories. One day a sad-looking man named Bellini, a retired high-wire walker, decides to stay at the boardinghouse. Mirette ends up seeing Bellini walking on a tight rope in the courtyard, and Mirette desperately wants to learn how to do it too. At first, Bellini refuses to teach her, so Mirette decides to try to teach herself. She falls, but she keeps trying, and after a week, she is able to walk the entire wire. She shows Bellini, who decides she may have some talent and starts helping her practice. Mirette then learns that Bellini is, in fact, the Great Bellini who who has performed incredible and daring high wire tricks. When Mirette tells Bellini she wants to perform these tricks with Bellini, he admits he is afraid. But Bellini does not want to disappoint Mirette, so he decides to try a new trick. His fear haunts him, but it is with Mirette’s help that Bellini is able to return to being the Great Bellini once again.

APA Reference of Book

McCully, E. A. (1992). Mirette on the high wire. New York, NY: G.P. Putnam’s Sons.

Impressions

This book was so touching to me because the story was beautiful alone but then wonderfully enhanced by the graceful, watercolor illustrations. I love that Mirette is shown in bright colors: with bright, red hair and colorful clothes in bright blues and bright pinks. This is a beautiful contrast with the dark blacks and grays worn by Bellini for most of the story. These colors seem to symbolize the characters. Mirette is excited and passionate, and so her colors are bright, but Bellini feels fearful and defeated, so his colors are dark and subdued. But I enjoyed seeing the colorful poster on the last page that advertises Mirette and Bellini’s high wire act: Belinni is show in a bright pink shirt that matches Mirette’s bright pink dress. Mirette took away Belinni’s fear and reignited his passion for the high wire, and this is demonstrated in the illustrations, specifically the colors. In addition, I was inspired by the passion displayed by Mirette, and I love seeing strong and determined female characters in books for children—it is a nice change from stereotypically weak girls. I am happy to see more and more books coming out for kids that show a diversity of female characters that are authentic and realistic.

Professional Review

In School Library Journal, Ruth MacDonald (1993) stated:

As improbable as the story is, its theatrical setting at some historical distance, replete with European architecture and exotic settings and people, helps lend credibility to this circus tale. Mirette, through determination and perhaps talent, trains herself, overcoming countless falls on cobblestone, vaunting pride that goes before a fall, and lack of encouragement from Bellini. The impressionistic paintings, full of mottled, rough edges and bright colors, capture both the detail and the general milieu of Paris in the last century. The colors are reminiscent of Toulouse-Lautree, the daubing technique of Seurat. A satisfying, high-spirited adventure. (p. 8)

In The Horn Book Magazine, Mary Burns (1992) reviewed the book by stating:

McCully has created an independent female protagonist—one with panache and a soupcon of something out of the ordinary. In a wonderfully exuberant picture book set in late nineteenth-century Paris, Mirette is the daughter of the hardworking widow Gateau. Madame Gateau runs a boarding house for the traveling players from all over the world who come to perform in the theaters and music halls of Paris. One evening, a handsome stranger who introduces himself as Bellini, a retired high-wire walker, asks for a room. Unlike the usual gregarious boarders, he keeps to himself, practicing his routines in the back courtyard — to the delight of Mirette, who is fascinated with his skill and longs to learn the art. Despite his refusal to become her mentor, she stubbornly proceeds to teach herself, thus inveigling him into acknowledging that she might have talent. Inadvertently, she learns that her friend, once an internationally famous daredevil, has retired because he had become fearful — a fatal emotion for one in his profession. How she salvages his self-respect and earns a place of her own in the limelight is the climactic moment in a well-conceived tale with the charm of an Offenbach score and the brilliance of a poster by Toulouse-Lautrec. McCully is thoroughly comfortable with the watercolor medium, exploiting its potential to achieve remarkable effects in creating interior and characters. A bravura performance. (577)

Library Uses

As a Caldecott winner, I think this book demonstrates beautiful artwork. Thus, this book would be well utilized as an example to children for watercolor illustrations. This book can be used at a children’s program, like an After School Program or a Family Fun Night, at which participants are given paper and watercolors and some instruction on how to create their own watercolor illustrations either from a guest speaker or a library employee. This type of program would greatly benefit if an actual children’s book illustrator (particularly the author and illustrator of Mirette on the High Wire, Emily Arnold McCully) were able to visit and guide participants in how to create their own watercolor art. For this program, the librarian can create a book display of notable picture books featuring watercolor artwork, specifically highlighting the book Mirette on the High Wire during the introduction to the program.

References

Burns, M. (1992, September). [Review of the book Mirette on the high wire, by 
         A. McCully]. The Horn Book Magazine, 68(5), 577. Retrieved from www.hbook.com

MacDonald, R. (1993, January 2). [Review of the book Mirette on the high wire, by 
          A. McCully]. School Library Journal, 39(1), 8. Retrieved from www.slj.com