A. Bibliography
Sweet, Melissa. Balloons Over Broadway: The True Story of the Puppeteer of Macy's Parade. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin for Children, 2011.
B. Plot Summary
Balloons Over Broadway is the story of the life of Tony Sarg. Sarg was creative as a child. He began to build things as early as six years old. Starting as a marionette maker, created the pathway for what his legacy in American culture would become. Tony found himself in New York City working for Macy's. He was commissioned to build mechanical marionettes for Macy's store windows. After seeing Tony's creativity come to life through his displays, Macy's decided to put Mr. Sarg in charge of the first Macy's parade. The parade was such a hit, Macy's decided to do the parade every year and it then became the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. After a few years of organizing the parade and modifying his balloons, Tony arrived at the idea of "upside-down marionettes". They were a huge hit and his legacy lives on as we watch these upside-down marionettes float the streets of New York City even today.
C. Critical Analysis
Balloons Over Broadway:
The True Story of the Puppeteer of Macy’s Parade is not only an
informational book, but an entertaining one as well. Readers of all ages will enjoy its history
and toys that seem to come to life on the pages. The book also offers a background of an event
that has been a part of American tradition since 1924. The tradition of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day
Parade is one that is enjoyed my millions of people every year. Balloons Over Broadway offers readers a
glimpse of the life of the man that made the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade
what it is today.
Sweet
begins the story by introducing the reader to Tony Sarg when he was only a
little boy of six. Through the detailed
illustrations on the first page, it is easy to see that even at six Sarg had a sketchbook
for ideas, built a marionette, and created a puppet stage. All three of these things are skills Sarg
perfected throughout his life. Sarg was
a dreamer and he had a creative mind to pair with those dreams.
The
illustrations of this biography not only offer insight into the life of Tony
Sarg, but they also offer information about marionettes, the Macy’s
Thanksgiving Day Parade and the history of the parade. Throughout the story, the illustrations show
step-by-step directions on how Tony designed things. My favorite was when Sarg was pictured
holding an elephant marionette and a balloon with an elephant drawn on it. This shows the parallel Tony made between the
two with illustrations. Another fabulous
illustration in this story was when Sweet used both pages of the book to show
the reader exactly how big the balloon Sarg created for the parade actually
was. The elephant is shown flying high
above the people, but so large in size that everyone could see.
At
the end of this story/biography, Sweet has added some author notes to explain
her research that went into the creation of this book. She offers a bibliography and other helpful
sources as well. The last page of the book
is a two-page lay-out of the actual newspaper article advertising the Macy’s
Thanksgiving Day Parade from 1933. I
absolutely love that the newspaper referred to them as “Helium Filled Monsters”.
I am sure that this terminology would
not be used today to describe the large balloons that float over the streets of
New York City on Thanksgiving Day.
D. Review Excerpt
Publishers Weekly had this to say about Balloons Over Broadway, "Tony Sarg (1880–1942, “rhymes with aargh!”),
the man who invented the giant balloons of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day
Parade, has found a worthy biographer in Caldecott Honoree Sweet (A
River of Words). With lighthearted watercolors, fanciful scrapbooking,
and collaged typography, Sweet shows how Sarg, a self-taught immigrant,
combined an indomitable curiosity with an engineer’s know-how and a
forever-young imagination. The story walks readers through each stage of
Sarg’s development as a master of puppetry—his childhood fascination
with mechanics and marionettes, his first big break as a developer of
window displays for Macy’s, and his early earthbound parade creations
(essentially air-filled rubber bags that were steered down the street).
And then comes the light-bulb moment: “With a marionette, the controls
are above and the puppet hangs down...” writes Sweet. “But what if the
controls were below and the puppet could rise up?” The rush that comes
from inspiration, the cliffhanger moments of creation, the sheer joy of
building something and watching it delight the multitudes—Sweet captures
it all in what is truly a story for all ages. Ages 4–8. (Oct.)"
E. Awards
Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Award for the most distinguished nonfiction book for children from the American Library Association
Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction for Children from the National Council of Teachers of English
F. Connections
Lesson Plan idea: This book would be fun to incorporate in a lesson about Thanksgiving Day traditions. It would be fun for students to research the Macy's Day parade as well.
Author Melissa Sweet's Website: http://melissasweet.net/
Balloons Over Broadway activity kit: CLICK HERE
Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade Link: CLICK HERE
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| ISBN: 978-0618997176 |
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| ISBN: 0618717145 |
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| ISBN: 978-0688162511 |
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