Circle - (The Shapes Trilogy) by Mac Barnett

About the Book

When Triangle breaks the rule about not hiding behind the waterfall while playing hide-and-seek with Circle and Square, Circle must rescue him.

Book Synopsis

A New York Times bestseller!

Part of the Shapes Trilogy, the books that inspired Shape Island from Apple TV+

Multi-award-winning, New York Times best-selling duo Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen deliver the final wry and resonant tale about Triangle, Square, and Circle.

This book is about Circle. This book is also about Circle's friends, Triangle and Square. Also it is about a rule that Circle makes, and how she has to rescue Triangle when he breaks that rule. With their usual pitch-perfect pacing and subtle, sharp wit, Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen come full circle in the third and final chapter of their clever shapes trilogy.

Review Quotes

With each shapes outing Klassen outdoes himself on doing much with little; in this case, the succession of spreads that go from gloomy to inky black, with only eyes to represent the characters, sets a high-water mark of minimalism that will be hard to beat but that works effortlessly and comedically within context. The book concludes by inviting the audience to join the shape friends in imagining what the being in the cave could be. That suggestion, issued with a light touch, moves deftly on from the story's summation without breaking the mood, so even kids resistant to more didactic entreaties may be enticed to join the characters as they wonder.
--Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books (starred review)

Square and Triangle have had their turns. Now, in the final volume of Barnett and Klassen's shapes trilogy, Circle's the hero...Circle's story offers a moment of genuine fright; watching Circle consider other possibilities reminds readers that calm analysis can master fear.
--Publishers Weekly

Illustrator Klassen's watercolor, graphite, and digitally created illustrations are evocative in their muted palette and spare presentation...the implied message of the story is a vital one in this xenophobic age and its subtle delivery and imagery encourage further exploration.
--Kirkus Reviews

In typical Barnett-Klassen style, humor and light philosophical musings mingle to form a story that will entertain children and adults alike. Because much of the story takes place in darkness, readers are called upon to use their imaginations, making this oddball friendship tale an off-kilter treat...If you don't order extra copies of this dynamic duo's latest, their fans will get bent out of shape.
--Booklist

...the message is highly entertaining in its delivery, and Klassen's understated work with light (and the absence of it), shadow, and texture carries the story full...circle.
--The Horn Book

Klassen paints a wonderfully mysterious backdrop of waterfall, concealing a dark cave behind it. His simple shapes with their stick legs and expressive eyes are full of personality. Barnett's subtle, witty text pokes gentle fun at the friends' foibles and fears in a way sure to appeal to children in the target age group.
--Buffalo News

Like Square and Triangle, Circle teaches shapes while challenging kids to think, in this case, about what they know and don't know.
--Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette

Offer[s] young readers plenty of opportunity to read their own ideas into the story, flex their imagination, and explore their own fear of the unfamiliar.
--New York Journal of Books

An elegant picturebook in which simple shapes and succinct story express big ideas. Here a game of hide-and-seek makes us consider, for starters, fear of strangers, the power of the imagination, being brave and standing by friends.
--The Sunday Times

About the Author

Mac Barnett, the 2025-2026 National Ambassador for Young People's Literature, is a New York Times best-selling author of stories for children. His work has been translated into more than thirty languages and sold more than five million copies worldwide. Mac Barnett's books have won many prizes, including two Caldecott Honors, three New York Times/ New York Public Library Best Illustrated Children's Book Awards, three E. B. White Read-Aloud Awards, the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, Germany's Jugendliteraturpreis, China's Chen Bochui International Children's Literature Award, the Netherlands' Zilveren Griffel, and Italy's Premio Orbil. He is the cocreator, with Jon Klassen, of the Substack Looking at Picture Books, as well as Shape Island, a stop-motion animated series on Apple TV+, based on their best-selling Shapes series of picture books. Mac Barnett lives in Oakland, California.

Jon Klassen is the author-illustrator of I Want My Hat Back, an E. B. White Read-Aloud Award winner and a Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor Book; This Is Not My Hat, winner of the Caldecott Medal and the Kate Greenaway Medal; and We Found a Hat. He is also the illustrator of two Caldecott Honor books, Sam and Dave Dig a Hole and Extra Yarn, both written by Mac Barnett. Jon Klassen lives in Los Angeles.