“On the High Wire is fascinating to read. You will learn about the man, his work, his passion, his tenacity and lucidity” (Marcel Marceau) In this poetic handbook, written when he was just twenty-three, the world-famous high-wire artist Philippe Petit offers a window into the world of his craft. Petit masterfully explains how preparation and self-control contributed to such feats as walking between the towers of Notre Dame and the World Trade Center. Addressing such topics as the rigging of the wire, the walker’s first steps, his salute and exercises, and the work of other renowned high-wire artists, Petit offers us a book about the ecstasy of conquering our fears and reaching for the stars.

One day, a mysterious stranger arrives at a boardinghouse of the widow Gateau- a sad-faced stranger, who keeps to himself. When the widow's daughter, Mirette, discovers him crossing the courtyard on air, she begs him to teach her how he does it. But Mirette doesn't know that the stranger was once the Great Bellini- master wire-walker. Or that Bellini has been stopped by a terrible fear. And it is she who must teach him courage once again. 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.

High Wire brings together Booker finalist writer Lloyd Jones and artist Euan Macleod. It is the first of a series of picture books written and made for grownups and designed to showcase leading New Zealand writers and artists working together in a collaborative and dynamic way. In High Wire the narrators playfully set out across the Tasman, literally on a high wire. Macleods striking drawings explore notions of home, and depict homeward thoughts and dreams. High Wire also enters a metaphysical place where art is made, a place where any ambitious art-making enterprise requires its participants to hold their nerve and not look down. Its a beautifully considered small book which richly rewards the reader and stretches the notion of what the book can do.

Irene grew up traveling around Germany with her family’s circus, surrounded by her loved ones and thrilling the crowds with her performance on the high wire...until one day, the audience boos. The Lorch family is Jewish, and the increasing power of Adolf Hitler’s Nazis has put them all in grave danger. When the circus is forced to shut down and Irene’s father is taken away, Irene and her mother must go into hiding with another circus. Every day is a frightening new kind of balancing act, caught between the desire to perform and the need to hide—even in plain sight.

Prankster twins Edgar and Ellen think they have found kindred spirits when they join the circus to escape from their mysterious caretaker and the one-eyed creature Pet, but they soon discover that it is hard to tell friend from foe.

A WOMAN STANDS ACCUSED BUT THE COST TO PROVE HER INNOCENCE… MAY JUST BE HER LIFE Captain Kate Gallagher has a plane to land and a daughter to get home to. But first, she’s got to contend with a confrontational co-pilot, blizzard conditions, and something far more treacherous–a plane contaminated with a lethal virus. When the controls refuse to respond to her commands, she’s got two choices: Turn the plane around or trust her instinct. One day later, the world’s press is picking through the mangled remains of Flight 394 and crying pilot error. To clear her name and find out what really happened, Kate must uncover a shocking conspiracy that has already zeroed in on a new target: another plane, another deadly disaster. With only seconds to save the 262 passengers on board, Kate Gallagher will fight her way back into the pilot’s seat and up into the air–in a life-and-death race against time, a madman, and a computer code that is wired, running, and ready to kill again....And the price for saving all those lives may be only one...hers. From the Paperback edition.

We all feel the cracking in our bones, the strain of our hearts, and the aching that comes with growing up. Loving, love lost, adventure, a hunger for home (whatever "home" means), nostalgia, angst. We all just want someone to look us in the face and say, "I know exactly how you feel." And that is precisely what "High Wire Darlings" is here to tell us.