Ask 100 children what might happen if you put wild animals in charge of a country fair in the middle of the night--there's a good chance that variations of their answers appear in this gloriously imaginative wordless picture book by Gideon Sterer (From Ed's to Ned's) and Mariachiara Di Giorgio (Professional Crocodile).
Dozens of animals watch from the nearby woods as evening turns to night and the swirling, neon-bright magic of a country fair begins to wind down. Human children yawn and are carried out on the shoulders of parents. A worker switches off the main power switch and drives away. But the night of thrills, games and fried dough is not over. Emerging from the trees is the second shift of fairgoers: bears, rabbits, owls and deer. A pair of raccoons--of course!--are the ringleaders, finding the gap in the fence and turning the power back on. What follows is a fanciful wordless story with myriad familiar fair tableaux: the ring toss (winner takes home a live goldfish in a baggie of water), magnificent carousel horses, cotton candy bigger than the indulger's head... all enacted by local wildlife under the inviting glitter and glow of lights. The energetic arc of The Midnight Fair comes down from its heady peak in a series of alternating pre-dawn scenes as the animals clean up the fairgrounds and the (human) worker wakes, brushes his teeth and heads back to work--where he finds the cash box filled with berries, feathers and acorns.
Lush watercolor, gouache and colored pencil artwork by Di Giorgio is spectacular not just in its liveliness and beauty but in its remarkable depth and perspective. On first "reading," viewers might focus on the main action: animals lining up for rides, waiting at the concession stands, playing games. But look again! In the foreground of these positively frame-worthy illustrations, roller coaster riders' expressions range from thrilled to terrified, and weasels crack up over a buddy's grinning head in the cutout face of a wooden bathing beauty. Surprise after surprise emerges for the keen-eyed reader, and not a detail is neglected, including what happens to the goldfish prize at the end of the night.
The Midnight Fair--like a ride on a Ferris wheel--will likely elicit entreaties of "Again, again!" --Emilie Coulter, freelance writer and editor
Shelf Talker: Under neon and moonlight shadows, woodland animals take over a country fair after the humans go home for the night.