Balloons Over Broadway: Puppet Play and Classroom Exploration

Best Users:
Booksellers, Public Librarians, School Librarians, Educators, Home Learning
Best Audience: Grades 00-04

 

ABOUT THE ACTIVITY KIT & OTHER TOOLS

Activity Kit
In the non-fiction picture book, Balloons Over Broadway: The True Story of the Puppeteer of Macy’s Parade, readers meet the brilliant and playful inventor / artist / puppeteer, Tony Sarg.  The young boy that made puppets and other clever creations became the one of the greatest innovators in puppetry and the inventor of the grandest parade spectacle in America -the Macy’s Parade balloons.

Imagine inspiring your readers to create puppets of their own either right after a reading of this Sibert Book Medal winning book or on Thanksgiving morning while they are watching the parade march by on their screens. (How great to have them actively creating and playing rather than just passively watching!) We have even designed an “Invitation” that you can hand out after a reading to remind readers to download and use the kit during the parade.

The Activity Kit includes:
— Paddle Puppets to be used as masks or pretend parade participants
— Accordion Dragon Stick Puppet to shimmy down the parade route
— Finger Puppets for an entire cast of characters
— Parade Route Maze
— Design their own Parade Balloon
— Parade Hat

DOWNLOAD Balloons Over Broadway: Activity Kit (PDF)
DOWNLOAD Balloons Over Broadway: Invitation (PDF)

This kit was created by Melissa Sweet with input from Curious City.

Educator’s Guide
The classroom and home guide includes discussion, vocabulary, writing, math, and science learning opportunities. The guide was written by literacy specialist Tracie Vaughn Zimmer.

DOWNLOAD Balloons Over Broadway: Educator's Guide (PDF)

 

ABOUT THE BOOK

Balloons Over Broadway: The True Story of the Puppeteer of Macy’s Parade
By Melissa Sweet
Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Available in Hardcover, Audio
Ages 4 and up

Everyone’s a New Yorker on Thanksgiving Day, when young and old rise early to see what giant new balloons will fill the skies for Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Who first invented these “upside-down puppets”? Meet Tony Sarg, puppeteer extraordinaire! In brilliant collage illustrations, Caldecott Honor artist Melissa Sweet tells the story of the puppeteer Tony Sarg, capturing his genius, his dedication, his zest for play, and his long-lasting gift to America—the inspired helium balloons that would become the trademark of Macy’s Parade.

2012 Robert F. Sibert Medal
NCTE Orbis Pictus Award
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“Sweet tells this slice of American history well, conveying both Sarg’s enthusiasm and joy in his work as well as the drama and excitement of the parade. . .This one should float off the shelves.”
—School Library Journal, starred review
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“Tony Sarg, the man who invented the giant balloons of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, has found a worthy biographer in Caldecott Honoree Sweet. 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”
—Publishers Weekly, starred review
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“This clever marriage of information and illustration soars high.”
—Kirkus Reviews, starred review
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“A joyous piece of nonfiction that informs and delights in equal parts.”
—Booklist, starred review
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“Sweet’s whimsical mixed-media collages, embellished with little dolls she made herself out of odds and ends, reinforce the theme that, for Sarg, work was play.”
—Horn Book, starred review