Mirette on the High Wire

McCULLY, Emily Arnold. Mirette on the High Wire. NY: G.P. Putnam’s Sons [1992]. 4to, [32]pp. Color pictorial boards. Turquoise endpapers; color illustrations on every page. A fine copy in original color pictorial dust jacket (slightest rubbing at base of spine panel, no medal affixed). Signed by the author/artist, Caldecott Medalist Emily Arnold McCully.

First edition. 1993 Caldecott Medal Winner! Young Mirette discovers that one of her mother’s lodgers is none other than the Great Bellini — one the master wire-walker, but now brought down to earth by a terrible fear. How Mirette and Bellini each teach the other courage and fortitude makes for a moving, unforgettable adventure! 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.