Balloons Over Broadway

Author/Illustrator: Melissa Sweet

Genre: Non-fiction

Grade level: K-3

Award: Caldecott Honor

This book is about a boy named Tony who mastered the art of making marionettes at a young age. His talents eventually takes him the New York City. He started his career at Macy's. He would create and design a puppet parade for the holidays in the store window. Everyone loved his work and it was met with much success. He eventually took on a bigger project. He created a parade filled with dancing and music that was loved by his fellow immigrant workers. Many of those immigrant workers were missing home during the Christmas holiday and so Tony added those songs so they could celebrate and feel at home. Each year that passed his parade got better and better. The marionettes got bigger and the talent got better. 

This book can be used to encourage students to be creative. It can also be used for a research project on someone interesting that you don't normally hear about everyday. There could be a wax museum project where you research someone and this could be used as one of the tools to research with. 

The illustrations are so cute! They are very colorful and fun. They are very happy and modern and just give you a very happy vibe. The illustrations are in a variety of drawings and paper mache puppets, objects, and collages. Overall a very interesting collection of illustrations that go well with the story. A well deserved Caldecott Honor award book.