Almond, David. Secret Heart.

Random House, Delacorte. 200p. c2002. 0-385-90065-1. $17.99. J

Almond, author of the ALA Notable Books Skellig, Kit's Wilderness, and Heaven Eyes (as well as the recent memoir Counting Stars), offers another affecting, mysterious, and poetic story here in the tale of Joe, a dreamy boy who is out of place in his ugly English village. The other boys taunt him, and Joe frequently skips school to explore the fields, where he sees and hears things no one else can. One night he dreams about a tiger, and the next day a ragged circus comes to town. There he meets a young trapeze artist named Corinna, who befriends him and takes him to meet the blind seer Nanty Solo, who perceives that Joe is the only one who can release the soul of the circus's long-gone tiger into the forest when the circus comes to an end. Then they can all begin again--Corinna, Nanty Solo, the aged but still powerful circus wrestler Hackenschmidt, and Joe and his loving mother, too.

Almond sets a mystical mood, with powerful descriptions of nature, the tiger, and the circus, and his writing casts a spell over the reader. Imaginative readers who can appreciate the use of magical realism and the way in which the ordinary and the extraordinary mingle in Almond's writing will enjoy this haunting but ultimately happy tale. Paula Rohrlick, KLIATT