Balloons over Broadway

Sweet, M. (2011). Balloons over Broadway. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Books for Children.

Tony Sarg was the puppeteer who made the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade such a visual treat. The story begins with his first invention, a chicken feeder that allowed the six year to feed his father’s hens without leaving the comfort of his bed. Sarg went on to become a puppeteer in London, and then in New York City, where he earned the admiration of R.H. Macy, who asked him to design mechanized marionettes for his holiday window displays. An immigrant, Sarg wanted to created spectacular puppets for the holiday parades celebrated by New York’s immigrants, and Macy agreed to put on a parade for his employees. The story follows Sarg on his journey from small puppets on floats, to larger rubber stick puppets, to giant helium and silk puppets that everyone could see for miles.

I love it when non-fiction books are approachable for children. Every kid loves puppets and parades, and so this is a more entertaining read than some. It does educate, but as much about the man as about how something works. And no kid could possibly look at those enormous balloon puppets and not wonder how they work and what they’re made of. It’s a good Wonder to tackle!

The author made her own toys and puppets to make the illustrations for this book. She made collages of watercolors, papier-mache puppets made from old books, fabrics, and found objects, which she painted and altered to take readers into the world and mind of Tony Sarg. I liked the mixed media feel of this book, like we are exploring shapes and dimensions in the same way Sarg must have experimented trying to make puppets in reverse and on a grand scale. The book contains a Bibliography and Sources section, a Quotes Sources space, as well as notes about Sarg that she discovered that didn’t make it into the story. Sweet thanked the friends, families and institutions that assisted her in her research. Even the paper lining is of old newspaper clippings of early Macy’s parades and book mentions of Sarg. All in all, this book is playful—the colors, the artwork, the text. It’s so important for a kid to see how artistic expression, experimentation and determination can become something iconic and wonderful.