Book: Hardcover | 8.81 x 11.29in | 32 pages | ISBN 9780399221309 | 21 Oct 1992 | Putnam Juvenile | 4 - 8 years
One day, a mysterious stranger arrives at a boardinghouse of the widow Gateau- a
sad-faced stranger, who keeps to himself. When the widow's daughter, Mirette, discovers
him crossing the courtyard on air, she begs him to teach her how he does it.
But Mirette doesn't know that the stranger was once the Great Bellini- master wire-
walker. Or that Bellini has been stopped by a terrible fear. And it is she who must teach
him courage once again.
Emily Arnold McCully's sweeping watercolor paintings carry the reader over the
rooftops of nineteenth-century Paris and into an elegant, beautiful world of acrobats,
jugglers, mimes, actors, and one gallant, resourceful little girl.
Caldecott Medal
New York Times Best Illustrated Book
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