Balloons Over Broadway: The True Story of the Puppeteer of Macy's Parade written by Melissa Sweet


Balloons Over Broadway: The True Story of the Puppeteer of Macy's Parade  tells the story of Tony Sarg and the origin of the famous Macy's Thanksgiving Day balloons.  The book tells the story of how Macy's Department store needed to replace the live animals that it was featuring in their parade.  They contacted Mr. Sarg to come up with an idea to replace the live animals. He had hoped to use his puppets, but unfortunately, they were not larger than three feet tall.  Mr. Sarg  contacted the Ohio company that specialized in making blimps out of rubber and designed his balloons.  The next problem that arose was to how to control the large balloons so that they would not fly away, and that is where is expertise working with the puppets came into place.  Mr. Sarg came up with the idea of controlling the puppets with string.  The book chronicles this time in history that we now get to enjoy on a yearly basis.

This is a wonderful picture book with beautiful illustrations.  The book is laid out in a way that reminiscent of a scrapbook of sorts.  Children of all ages will enjoy reading this book over and over again, and especially around the holidays.  Balloons over Broadway is a Caldecott Honor winner; that should be read aloud because it will bring back memories of past Thanksgiving for those that are present.

A book trailer can be seen at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONXv_7sXQdA

A read along can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMsYLtOVh2A

Teachers can find ideas to incorporate this book at http://www.hmhbooks.com/kids/resources/BalloonsOverBroadway_ActivityKit.pdf

Readers also enjoyed Here Comes the Garbage Barge!  written by Jonah Winter and Barnum's Bones: How Barnum Brown Discovered the Most Famous Dinosaur in the World written by Tracey E Fern.

Other books written by Melissa Sweet include Some Writer!: The Story of E. B. White and

Girls Think of Everything: Stories of Ingenious Inventions by Women.

Sweet, M., Newborn, R., & Paquette, C. (2011). Balloons over Broadway: The true story of the puppeteer of Macy's Parade. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Books for Children.