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

By Melissa Sweet

Sweet’s bright and colorful picture book, Balloons Over Broadway, combines many different mediums and soft colors to create and eye-catching and beautiful illustrations that draw the reader and audience into this awe-inspiring and true story. Before reading this book, I never thought much about how the beloved puppets in the Macy’s Parade came to be. When I was younger, I remember being extremely excited to wake up on Thanksgiving morning and see the parade and all of my favorite characters come to life as mesmerizing floating puppets. Nonfiction stories have the ability to be extremely dry and boring to read and listen to, but authors like Sweet make these true stories more accessible and enjoyable to audiences of all ages. Children learn fun and impressive facts to tell their friends and adults learn the story of these iconic balloons that they never knew existed.