You Can't Take a Balloon into the Metropolitan Museum [Hardcover]

Jacqueline Preiss Weitzman (Author), Robin Glasser (Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 4 and up | Grade Level: P and up

New York City and its famed Metropolitan Museum of Art provide the setting for a crazy collision of art and city life in an inventive picture book about a little girl's trip to the museum and the parallel journey of her runaway yellow balloon. Full color.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Loaded with pizzazz, this wordless story takes readers on a great balloon chase that encompasses some of New York City's most celebrated sites. A grandmother and a girl holding a yellow helium balloon are stopped at the door of the Metropolitan Museum and a guard ties the forbidden toy to the banister, offering to keep an eye on it. The moment he turns away, a pigeon unties the balloon, and the guard is off and running to retrieve it. Detailed pen-and-ink drawings, punctuated with color to highlight the central action, show all the chaos that ensues, from Central Park to the Plaza Hotel to a production of Aida at the Metropolitan Opera. Into the scenes of mayhem, Glasser (Alexander, Who's Not [Do You Hear Me? I Mean It!] Going to Move) cleverly inserts reproductions of famous works of art, as viewed by the girl and grandmother, each a reflection of whatever action is going on around the balloon. In the onstage scene at the opera, for example, a dog walker, a zookeeper, a Plaza bellhop and others wreak havoc while the girl and her grandmother view an equally erratic painting (Autumn Rhythm) by Jackson Pollock. Some pairings work better than others, but Glasser's drawings capture all the energy and charm of a captivating city. Ages 5-up.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Kindergarten-Grade 3-In this wordless picture book, a little girl visits the Metropolitan Museum with her grandma, leaving her yellow balloon tied to the railing outside. However, it escapes with the help of a pigeon and the rest of the story follows the balloon's adventures in New York City while the little girl and her grandmother are inside. There are often three or more busy vignettes filled with activity and energy on each page. Adults may pick up on the fact that the balloon's adventures are often thematically matched with the sights at the Met (e.g., as the museum-goers view the Temple of Dendur, the balloon shares the stage at the Metropolitan Opera with Aida). The balloon has many wild escapades that show children and adults in silly settings throughout the city. This is a fun story with a lovely grandparent/child relationship. It won't teach readers much about famous paintings or about life in New York City, but it does offer lots of viewing for children and adults to share.
Susan Lissim, Dwight School, New York City
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 4 and up
  
• Hardcover: 40 pages
• Publisher: Dial; 1st edition (October 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0803723016
• ISBN-13: 978-0803723016
• Product Dimensions: 11.2 x 0.3 x 11.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #571,852 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars WOW!, April 20, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: You Can't Take a Balloon into the Metropolitan Museum (Hardcover)

We love this book! It has made the Metropolitan real for my 2-1/2 year old. She keeps telling me she wants to go back to see more pictures. We cannot go through a pedestrian tunnel in Central Park without talking about elephants getting stuck in them. I can't wait to take her to the Zoo and what she calls the "Plaza Hotel Museum". Why doesn't the Met do a map of the art? Why don't the authors publish a map of the sites for people who don't know NYC as well as they do? Why don't you go buy this book and fall in love with its immediacy and joy, too?

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Buried treasure lies between the covers of this book!, September 22, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: You Can't Take a Balloon into the Metropolitan Museum (Hardcover)

Once in a long while a book comes along that is so simple yet so complex and innovative that it can be enjoyed time and again by both children and adults and is destined to become a classic. This is one of those books.

Having myself been taken at a very young age by my father to the Metropolitan Museum, this book has awoken within me wonderful memories that have instilled me with a love of museums (and especially of the Met). Although my children have not had the experience of seeing the Metropolitan as we live outside the U.S., this book has afforded me the opportunity to describe the museum to them and relive my experiences with them and at the same time take a rollicking educational ride through this romp.

I can actually feel the joy these two sisters must have had in working on this project. It is a work that comes from the heart and kudos to their collaboration of story and artwork that raises the story above the mundane.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Teachers will love this wordless book., October 12, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: You Can't Take a Balloon into the Metropolitan Museum (Hardcover)

Wordless picture books have always held an honored place in the hearts (and lesson plans) of all teachers who promote a love of reading. YOU CAN'T TAKE A BALLOON INTO THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM takes that tradition to new heights with its exquisite detail, subtle parallel events, humor and excitement. It has all the elements of story: setting, lively characterization, the conflict and the chase...not to mention a most satisfying ending! But beyond all these delights, teachers of children of all ages will be drawn to this book for its potential to lead young minds on a quest for further information in many areas: art, art history, cultural tradition. It will find its place in creative writing lessons and in lessons about cultural history. And it will inevitably fix the images of a great museum in the minds of "readers," many of whom will find their way to The Met to discover these visual treasures in "real life." --Ann P. Kaganoff, PhD, Certified Educational Therapist; President, Association of Educational Therapists