Day: December 8, 2011

Review: Balloons Over Broadway by Melissa Sweet

| Tasha

balloons over broadway

Balloons over Broadway: The True Story of the Puppeteer of Macy’s Parade by Melissa Sweet

For over 80 years, there have been huge balloons in the Macy’s Parade.  We have Tony Sarg to thank for that.  Even when Tony was a small boy, he was inventing things.  He figured out a way to feed the chickens in the morning without having to get out of bed.  He wanted to be a marionette puppeteer, but was born in a time when marionettes were not being used anymore.  So he figured out how to build them and started performing on Broadway with his marionettes.  From there, he got a job designing the holiday windows for Macy’s where he did puppets that moved through gears and pulleys.  After that, he started working on parades.  He first built balloons that were held by stiff sticks, but they needed to be higher so more people could see.  So out of necessity and through tremendous creativity, he figured out how to make balloons fly high but still be controlled and seem lifelike.  We are all lucky enough to still be able to see the work of Sarg every Thanksgiving in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. 

This book is all about dreaming big and then figuring out a way to make those huge dreams come to life.  Sarg’s life is also about following your own personal bliss and making a living doing what you love.  It is a tribute to creativity and imagination on a grand scale.  Sweet has created a book that celebrates all of this and remains a biography of a real man too.

Her art is a tremendous part of the book’s success.  Through a mix of painting and collage, she brings Sarg’s world to life.  Fabrics, different paper, objects and maps all find their way into the illustrations, creating new textures, dimension and color.  They are illustrations that celebrate on almost every page, filled with bright colors and ingenuity.

Highly recommended, this book should be added to everyone’s must read list for Thanksgiving titles, but don’t keep it just for that time of year.  It is also a great book to discuss creativity and unusual jobs!  Appropriate for ages 6-8.

Reviewed from library copy.

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Review: A Christmas Goodnight by Nola Buck

| Tasha

christmas goodnight

A Christmas Goodnight by Nola Buck, illustrated by Sarah Jane Wright

This cozy, quiet Christmas book focuses on the nativity.  Through gently rhyming stanzas, the story of Jesus’ birth is told.  It is woven into a bedtime story where everyone in the nativity tale is told goodnight.  It includes the animals, the angels, the star, the Wise Men, and the shepherds.  Then the book moves to a modern winter scene at a farm where the good night wishes continue to the snow, the hare, and a small nativity set.  This transition is made seamlessly and very successfully, tying the modern Christmas celebration directly to the birth of Jesus. 

Buck has written a book that celebrates the story of the nativity in a way that small children will be able to easily understand.  She successfully ties in a goodnight theme as well as a link to the modern world. 

Wright’s illustrations have a jewel-colored palette and simple lines.  They are modern and yet also honor the traditional, so they work well for this subject.  The simplicity also works well for the very young audience with the washes of color and the clean lines.

A great pick for libraries or families looking for books that celebrate the reason for Christmas in a religious way.  It’s a perfect bedtime read for Christmas Eve.  Appropriate for ages 2-4.

Reviewed from library copy.