From School Library Journal
Grade 1-4-Mirette and Bellini are stateside in this adventure. Readers meet the duo on deck of the SS Magnifique bound for New York, where the famous wire walkers intend to cross Niagara Falls. On board, they befriend a Polish orphan who is traveling in steerage. Upon their arrival at Ellis Island, Bellini and Mirette try to shepherd young Jakob through the complex, intimidating immigration process. When he is threatened with deportation because his uncle is not there to meet him, Bellini steps in and identifies the boy as his assistant. The three travel to Niagara Falls and are soon swept up in the carnival atmosphere surrounding another boastful performer named Patch who has issued a challenge to Mirette and Bellini. As the day of the wire-walking duel dawns, Jakob observes that Patch is intending to ride a bicycle across the falls, a feat that looks quite daring, but is not since the bicycle is actually attached to the wire. Just after the boy makes this discovery, he sees one of Patch's cohorts tampering with his friends' wire. McCully's luminous watercolor-and-pastel portraits dramatize the thrilling sequence of events masterfully. Historical details from turn-of-the-century America conveyed by both the text and illustrations make this title useful for social studies as well as literature curricula.
Rosalyn Pierini, San Luis Obispo City-County Library, CA Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Ages 4-8. McCully, whose
Mirette on the High Wire was awarded the 1993 Caldecott Medal, is back in winning form with the third adventure showcasing Mirette in the heroic role of high-wire walker. This time, the young girl and her guardian, Bellini, journey to New York to fulfill the promise to cross Niagara Falls on a wire made at the end of
Starring Mirette and Bellini (1997). McCully's depiction of the ocean crossing on an opulent liner, with Mirette practicing wire walking on a windswept deck surrounded by well-dressed passengers, is as intriguing as the daring Niagara Falls stunt. On the boat, Mirette befriends Jakob, a young Polish orphan from steerage, who is later instrumental in saving Mirette and Bellini. The dangers of the stunt are heightened by Mirette's determination to stand on Bellini's shoulders, and by the machinations of a rival wire walker who tampers with Bellini's wire. The climax is truly heart stopping. The story (based on an actual incident involving nineteenth-century daredevil Blondin, the model for Bellini) is gripping, the friendship theme is well developed, and the watercolor-and-pastel illustrations are breathtaking, whether depicting the luxury ship, the Great Hall at Ellis Island, the bustle in the town before the stunt, or the crossing itself.
Connie FletcherCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
