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Balloons Over Braodway: The Story Of The Puppeteer Of Macy's Parade (2012)

by Melissa Sweet(Favorite Author)

4.13 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

1470329220 (ISBN13: 9781470329228)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Recorded Books

review 1: This is book definitely meets criteria for Orbis Pictus. This book tells of how the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade begun. Starting with the main character, Tony Sarg, as a child completely intrigued with the idea of bringing things to life. The book goes over many different puppets and balloons Tony Sarg produces for the parade. His career with Macy’s started when he was asked to make a puppet parade for the store windows during the holiday season. He then was hired to create floats and costumes. Each one he makes continues to improve until finally he creates the helium-filled balloon, which we now see everywhere today. This book is extremely fascinating to children and even an older audience because it is about an even that is well known, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade,... more and tells the story of how it came to be. The author, Melissa Sweet, does a perfect job at portraying Sarg’s zeal and enthusiasm of his work. This book does an amazing job of telling children how something that is relevant in their life became so popular through the hard work of Tony Sarg. This could be used in the classroom before the Macy's Day Parade weekend so kids can watch it and know all about the history of it since not many people seem to be so aware, it could be fun. Their homework could be to watch it and record what is new or what clues show up in this book.Sweet, M. (2011). Balloons over Broadway : The true story of the puppeteer of Macy's Parade. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Books for Children.
review 2: Balloons Over Broadway introduces readers to the life and work of Tony Sarg, mastermind behind the legendary creations in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. At a young age, Tony mastered the art of making marionettes, and his talents eventually took him to New York City. He started his career at Macys by designing a "puppet parade" for the store's holiday windows. His work was met with success, and he took on an even bigger project-designing a parade filled with the music and dancing loved by so many of his fellow immigrant workers. With each passing year, Tony's parade paraphernalia increased in size, technology, and talent, culminating in the creation of enormous upside-down marionettes. The illustrations in this book are a combination of drawings and collages of papier-mache puppets and found objects. These efforts mirror those of Tony Sarg's and bring his work back to life. Even the jacket covers provide a window into the mind of Tony Sarg and the way in which his work was perceived. The author does a wonderful job of showing the progression of Tony's work and his dedication to pleasing the spectators at the parade. Readers of all ages will be able to connect to the influence of Tony's work and will look at the efforts of a parade in an entirely new light. This book would be best used with early or intermediate elementary students. Younger readers will appreciate the text and their the illustrations will scaffold their understanding of the progression of Tony's work. Older readers will gain a deeper understanding of Tony's vision and how his ideas were brought to life with the help of many creative minds. This book would make a great read aloud or contribute to a collective study of influential artists. less

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