Once again David Almond writes a story that is at once accessible and profound. Once again his prose blurs the distinctions between the real and the imagined, and we enter into a world which feels real and yet has a hint of the magical about it.

Joe Malone is a loner. He prefers teh open countryside to being cramped in school. He is surrounded by people trying to make him fit with their definition of what a man should be.

When a small and dying circus comes to town, he finds a kindred spirit. In particular he finds someone who understands the reality of his secret heart.

This is not a long book. Had it been longer the adults might be more fleshed out and less inclined to just induce conflict. But the book works as it is, and the conflicts of societies expectations and our own desires, and so much more are all explored here in another wonderful tale by this first rate author. ( )

Another strange and mysterious novel by David Almond. This is definitely a book that fits within his style. The novel is well-written, the characters well-developed. The setting is new and intriguing. ( )

Yet another notable book by David Almond.

Joe Malone is more backward and different than the scruffy, motely crew existing in Helmouth, a teeny village at the city's tiny edge. He struggles with words; he struggles with school; he struggles with surviving the cruel taunts of the town ruffians.

Blending fantasy with reality, Almond weaves a magical tale as we journey with Joe who is drawn to a rag tag circus group that parks its rusty, tattered carts and tent on the fringe of town. Both the circus "freaks" and Joe experience the nastiness of petty minded, small people in a backward hamlet.

As in other Almond books, the character finds a strong female friend who awakens all that is good and right.

Symbolically Joe hears and sees a powerful tiger at the edge of the wilderness and in a mythological way embraces the spirit and soul of that animal. In battling the tiger and in finding a like spirited group of circus friends, he becomes stronger and embraces his uniqueness.