Where Do Balloons Go?: An Uplifting Mystery

My Grandchildren Love It!

My grandchildren Jack and John are 4 and 2 years old and love this book! It is one of their favorites and the one they pick for me to read to them at bedtime.

Super Fun!

I love this book, and I love reading it to my son or my niece. Cute

Great book for any child who loves balloons

My grandson loves balloons and he loved hearing about the possible places they go to! The illustrations are equally great as the story!

Too old for 2 yr old

I got this for my 2 yr old granddaughter. She loves books and it really doesn't matter what we're reading. I found the illustrations beautiful but I think she found them distracting, too much detail. I think she'll enjoy the story and pictures when she is a little older.

Interesting, even for a daddy

My youngster and his friends liked when I read this book to them because they are always setting balloons free with attached notes hoping someone answers them. Even I enjoyed this book. Daddy.

GREAT BOOK

I got this book for my daughter when she was just about 2 years old. I got it originally from Kohls, from one of their specials. Well, my daughter absolutly loves the book. We read it all the time. She's even memorized the lines and reads along with you and points to the words. I think that this book really got her into reading because now she'd rather read than play...most of the time. Anyway, she started preschool this September, and she brought the book in for show and tell....the teacher read it to the class...and as the teacher read the book...so did my daughter. It was awesome. I am really looking forward to buying more of Jamie Lee's books. Thanks!

You'll Want to Float Away With These Balloons!,

Celebrity authors of children¿s books frequently disappoint. This is not the case with this whimsical tale that ponders the plight of balloons that accidentally get loose or are simply set free. Curtis¿ fanciful imagination raises a number of amusing and delightful possibilities as she instills the wayward balloons with human characteristics and individual personalities. The humans that populate her tale seem fully cognizant and comfortable with this fact as they freely interact with the vigorous and lively balloons. Curtis suggests possible ¿solutions¿ to the loose balloon mystery in open questions to the audience -including queries about whether they ¿tango with airplanes¿ or ¿cha-cha with birds.¿ But she never ¿solves¿ the mystery, leaving it for her readers to ponder and decide for themselves. Cornell¿s boldly colored, action-packed, cartoon drawings of the balloons intermingling with humans are a perfect match for Curtis¿ verse. Without being overly distracting, Cornell¿s illustrations provide something on virtually page to discover and amuse each time the reader looks at a page, no matter how many times they have looked at it before. The net result is a true crowd pleaser. Highly recommended for ages 3 to 6. .

an uplifting feeling

i recently purchsed this book and all i do is read it over and over , its a big help for me beeing i just lost my mother this christmas, i love this book

This one keeps you guessing!

What imagination this book has! It keeps my 4 years old on her toes! We have read this one many times, and we can find new things in the pictures eveytime we read it. It brings out the kid in me too!

Fun, Open-Ended, Imaginative Speculations!

This book clearly deserves more than five stars! Most good children's books have a primary story line that entertains the children, and brings home an important lesson. The outstanding children's books manage to combine more than one lesson. The great children's books appeal to adults as much as to children. The classic children's books take children and adults to places, thoughts, and lessons that they would never otherwise have considered. Where Do Balloons Go? has all of the elements of a classic children's book, with some novel improvements in combining text and illustrations to expand your imagination. Where Do Balloons Go? begins with this query: 'Where do balloons go when you let them go free? It can happen by accident. It's happened to me.' Now, if you are like me, you assume that the helium-filled balloons are carried high into the air until they either develop a hole and burst or explode from the expansion of the helium into the near-vacuum around the balloon. Not very exciting as alternative thoughts, are they? That dead-end in your mind, though, sets you up for the wonderful, mind-expanding speculations in this interesting book. 'Are they always alone? Do they ever meet up in pairs? Do they ever get married and make balloon heirs?' To fully appreciate this set of questions, you have to imagine the illustrations that complement the queries. Balloons are dining in a restaurant, having a romantic time. Using that illustrative vision to launch into the idea of balloon 'heirs' (pun obviously intended for 'airs') is hilarious. I just loved it. The illustrations are done in vibrant colors, emphasizing lots of purples, that create a play with the text and vice versa as the above example shows to greatly expand the meaning of the book. For a further example, the text says that balloons are ' . . . always concerned that they'll POP -- maybe caught up in wires pushed by the breeze . . . or tangled in trees . . . . ' The corresponding illustration emphasizes professional human balloon detanglers with advertisements and all kinds of specialized gear untangling balloons from trees. The illustrations have a Richard Scarry-type appearance combined with a New Yorker-style sophistication that effortlessly engage these illustrations to nicely bridge the gap between children and adults, without excluding either side of the audience. In this sequence, you have an additional reversal in that people are serving the balloons, rather than our usual conception of the object serving the person. Without this illustration for the text, that final visual play on the verbal concept would not have been possible. A standard technique for children's books is just to anthromorphize the objects. This book goes well beyond that. First, different types of anthromophization are employed (as objects with senses 'twisted by clowns' as well as self-animate objects 'Do they tango with airplanes?'). The balloons are also made into creatures with animal-like qualities ('Or cha-cha with birds?') and spiritual beings (with a relationship to the stars). You will have to read th

Delightful

As a new mom with little time to get things done, I grabbed this book from the store because my son said, 'Baoooo' when he saw the cover. I didn't realize when I bought this book how much time we would spend with it. It's in all of our holiday photos and then some. It's got the best unrippable stickers that my 15 month son adores as they don't start him shrieking as other sticky stickers cause him to do. Cornell's illustrations are a wonder and keep even me interested after reading it about 5 billion times. Thanks Curtis and Cornell.

Wonderful!!

What a beautifully 'uplifting' book. The end of the book stole a few tears from my eye. I always enjoy reading Jamie's creations as she really has the view from a child's eye. I had to go back several times to study the colorful and witty illustrations-there's so much to see! Keep 'em coming!

A wonderful celebration!

Unsurpassed! This book is inspirational on so many levels. It appeals to the sensibilities of a child-- letting your imagination soar limitless. But it also speaks to the adult, the parent-- in how we must learn to accept life and let go sometimes. Like Seuss's ALL THE PLACES YOU'LL GO! this book is sure to stand the test of time. And while Curtis is still developing as a writer (The 'MASS-A-CHU-SETTS' ryme is pretty forced!) Cornell has reached new heights in style and creativity. She certainly deserves the lion's share of praise!

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No text was provided for this review.

No text was provided for this review.