Balloons Over Broadway: The True Story of the Puppeteer of Macy's Parade

“Every little movement has a meaning of its own.” This quote was said by Tony Sarg, the main character of the story. The book told the story of Tony and how he went from being a boy with a dream of becoming a marionette man to a genius who created the Macy’s Day Parade. Tony was born to bring happiness in the world. When he was younger, he lived in London and created puppets for the boys and girls who lived there. As soon as Tony moved to New York City, the Tony Sarg Marionettes performed on Broadway and soon were in the “Wondertown Windows” of the Macy’s stores. On Thanksgiving Day in 1924, Macy’s had their first parade to honor their employees. Tony was hired to create the floats and costumes for everyone. He soon realized that he wanted to create balloons so everyone could see the parade. So he figured a plan of how to create upside down marionettes for the parade. It was an instant success and to this day we still celebrate Thanksgiving Day mornings by turning on the television or going to New York City to see this very special parade.

This has got to be one of my favorite picture books of all time. I absolutely fell in love with not only the way the book was worded but with the pictures as well. It turned a story that had a lot of information into a fascinating story about a boy with a dream and who now makes everyone so happy on Thanksgiving Day. I never had realized that the Thanksgiving Day parade originally was created to honor the immigrants who worked in Macy’s. It provides students with a new perspective of immigrants that we normally do not see or think about when we think back to this time period. I would want to use this book around Thanksgiving time so my students could watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade with their family. This novel makes this story come to life for the audience and children would really enjoy it. An activity that would go great along with this picture book would be to have the students come up with their own float or balloon idea that they would want to be included in the parade. The students could work in groups to create smaller versions of their floats and draw sketches of what their balloon would look like. Lastly, it provides the audience with information in a way that you do not even know you are learning about a person and their actual life. It took me a second at the end to process everything I had just learned. Truly an extraordinary picture book!

Balloons Over Broadway: The True Story of the Puppeteer of Macy's Parade

Author: Melissa Sweet

Year Published: 2011