Circle
On shapes in darkness and the stories we tell about them
Some books know exactly when to turn out the lights.
I gave Circle to a friend's three-year-old daughter recently. She's not usually one for sitting through stories, her parents say, but this one held her. She let them read to the end. Though now I wonder - she's been afraid of the dark lately. Was it the book? That shape in the cave that Circle warns us not to look at?
My son and I spend a lot of time with that shape-in-darkness. We make guesses about what it might be. Sometimes we're brave about it, sometimes we're not. Circle teaches us both ways of looking - the afraid way, the curious way. The way that acknowledges darkness holds things we can't see, and maybe that's okay.
Pattern Notes
- Shapes that speak without words
- Darkness that might hold anything
- Trust drawn in simple lines
- Fear as a circle of friends
Reading Together
Watch how young readers lean in at different moments:
- When Circle first issues the warning
- When we see the darkness
- When we think we see something in it
- When we have to decide what we believe
Some choose not to look. Some can't help themselves. Both reactions tell their own story.
Connected Patterns
Stories that play with darkness and what we choose to see:
- Where the Wild Things Are (night that contains monsters and dinner)
- The Dark by Lemony Snicket (darkness that speaks)
- The Wolves in the Walls (things we think we hear)
Reading Space Notes
Sometimes my son asks to be in complete darkness. To hide. He likes to be a little afraid, I think. To practice it in a safe space. To learn, like Circle does, that what we imagine in darkness isn't always what's there.
Where to find your own copy:
