Balloons over Broadway: The True Story of the Puppeteer of Macy's Parade (review)

Sweet introduces her picture-book audience to just the kind of inventor kids would want to meet: Tony Sarg, the wizard behind the giant helium balloons that awe viewers of New York's Thanksgiving Day Parade. His first effort for Macy's department store was the design of mechanized puppets for their Christmas window, "Wondertown." From there he moved on to orchestrating a parade for employees, which proved so popular that he devised oversized balloon figures operated on long sticks. As the parade audience swelled, the need for larger puppets became evident, and Sarg invented his signature helium behemoths, originally made of rubberized silk and manipulated by keepers who guided them along the streets (and under the elevated tracks!) on rope tethers. Sweet's artwork is as joyous an affair as its subject—a confection of cartoon and collage and snippets of found print, with one glorious double-page spread in a vertical layout that demonstrates how the massive balloon dwarfs its costumed handlers. The text itself comes up a bit short on particulars of Sarg's background and the timeframe for his accomplishments; closing notes, however, help fill this gap. Kids who can't be there in person to revel in the aerial entertainment will be commandeering the remote for the TV broadcast. An author's note, a bibliography, and source notes are included.