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

by Melissa Sweet

            Anthony “Tony” Fredrick Sarg loved to figure out how to make things move. He loved it so much that when he grew up, he became a puppeteer and made marionettes: puppets whose movements were controlled from above with strings. Tony moved to New York City and his marionettes began performing on Broadway, where they caught the attention of Macy’s Department store. Tony started designing mechanical marionettes for Macy’s display windows, and eventually became the person behind the floats in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. In Balloons over Broadway, Melissa Sweet tells us how it all happened.           

          Melissa Sweet is author and illustrator of Balloons over Broadway. She has designed illustrations in this book which are gouache (a type of watercolor painting), collage and mixed media. There are layers of interesting detail on each page from cover to cover. Newspaper clippings and pictures of the many puppets made by Tony Sarg are shown, as well as and diagrams of marionettes.  The book is published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, and contains an author’s note and a bibliography page. Balloons over Broadway was the 2012 Robert F. Sibert Medal Winner and Winner of the 2012 NCTE Orbis Pictus Award. I truly enjoyed reading about the man who is responsible for the creation and inspiration of the awesome balloons in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Book jacket source: Library website.

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