Customer Reviews

The Yellow Balloon

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This is to rebut the previous review. Based on that review, I scanned our library copy carefully before checking it out. I found the book delightful and immediately shared it with my children. Some of the "objectionable" pictures are subjectively interepreted--for instance, where the previous reviewer saw an insane man dressed as batman, I merely saw as Batman himself (supported by the fact that if one looks carefully at the pictures, you can also find Little Red Riding Hood and Mary Poppins). I found the nude beach (less than one inch square) but completely missed the "children spying on naked people." The ghosts are teeny and cute. And so on. My children loved looking for the common elements in each beautiful picture. As in any book, look it over yourself and decide if you want your kids to see it. There ARE three or four impaled men in one scene, though, like every other element they are very small. I felt that these tiny images did not detract from a beautiful book.

I don't think I have ever written a review but I had to write to offer an opposing opinion to the earlier review. My 4 year old loves this book. We have looked at it more times than I can count and he has never noticed the "impaled people" frankly, neither had I (and I am accused of many of being way over-protective of what my child is exposed to) There are so many things to see and I find it charming overall. Batman is Batman. The lost children are Hansel and Gretel. The skater just has a red design on his shirt and has poor balance. Fire trucks are on the way yo help the people in the fire and there is a life boat helping those from the sinking ship(Titanic?) The witches are having a bonfire. Maybe roasting marshmallows? PLEASE do not write off this book based on one review. Check it out for yourself.

After reading this book, I too felt compelled to post a positive review to counter the ridiculous reviews below. Yes, there are some images, tiny as they may be, that have the potential to mildly trouble an already extremely sheltered child. As a preschool teacher, when I sit down with a child to read a book like this I try to use the much needed unsugar-coated imagery to initiate meaningful conversations with my students. If a child notices the boy who's fallen off his bike on the second page, then perhaps we could talk about the importance of bike safety, wearing your helmet, or better still, mustering the courage to get back up and try again. As for the nudity on a minute portion of the beach page, I for one think it's okay for children to know that naked bodies are good and appropriate in some circumstances, and I don't think an innocent conversation about how mommies and daddies sometimes have pubic hair will forever corrupt a child.

What saddens me most about the previous comments is the reviewers' failure to acknowledge the incredible potential in a book like this. This book is an invitation to sit down with your child and explore the world, answer important questions, acknowledge differences across cultures, and wonder, together, about the beautiful global community in which we all live.

If this book troubles you then I'll spare you the horror and advise you to never read The Busy World of Richard Scary, Where's Waldo, Where the Wild Things Are, The Giving Tree, The Gruffalo, anything by Shel Silverstein, The Three Little Pigs, Little Red Riding Hood, Curious George, and well, just about anything that will hold your child's attention and foster a love for reading.

This is one of my all-time favorite gift books to friends with young children. At first it appears that it consists of a series of large, highly detailed paintings. On a closer look you can see a series of "stories": a man is arrested in the first panel, escapes from prison in the second, and appears in a striped prison uniform in all the rest of the pages. In the last, he returns home to the house from which he was arrested. Similarly, a man buys a rug in one picture, unfolds it in the next, and is found flying through much of the others until he meets up with... well, take a look!

This book is great for pre-literate kids. You can treat it as a puzzle book, or as a story book. I like to use it as a jumping off point for storytelling: where did the giraffe truck come from? Why? Where is the blue car going to go next? How did it get on the island? Is the castle battle real or is it a movie? Can you follow the mountain trail to find out how to get to the bottom? There are many connecting "threads" that flow from page to page (but are not present on every page). Trying to discover them has given us hours of bedtime enjoyment.

What I love about this book is its open-endedness. This is far more than a "Where's Waldo" book. Its an opportunity for creativity and discovery.

Great book for kids and adults alike. Like "Where's Waldo?" but more sophisticated artwork.

Our kids loved looking at the pictures in this book. It's great to be able to make up your own story to go with the pictures.

This book is an absolute favorite in our family. We have 4 kids of all ages and we all just love going through the book and discovering new things every time. There is so much to see and every page is a beautiful work of art. The different scenes are entertaining and quirky and very detailed. There are many stories to imagine. I do not classify anything in the book as unsuitable for kids or out there. Instead I find the book innocent and slightly crazy in a fun way. The book lets you go on a journey finding adventures and a jumble of different places. I have met the author of the book when she signed our copy and she is lovely. I have bought several books of her range and hope there are more to come! Please don't let the negative reviews put you off this book. You would miss out for no reason!

this book is my favorite book to watch with my one and a half year old daughter. everytime we turn the page she points at the yellow ballon and makes a funny sound. she can also show many other things like vulcano, plane ... many more. with this book you can teach your child the whole world and explain a lot of things about the earth. it's fun to watch for adults as well. GREAT JOB done by the artist!

I'll admit to "not getting" this book when I first picked it up. I didn't read the liner notes, didn't catch that there are items/people you must look for on each page (a yellow balloon, a blue car, a man with a flying carpet, and an escaped prisoner). Without those common threads to tie all of the pictures together, the book amounts to a series of disjointed, pretty pictures.

But add the items and people in and suddenly the storytelling possibilities are endless. Has the prisoner really escaped, or has he been released? Did he really do something bad, or is he just trying to get back home? Is the man with the flying carpet helping him? Are they friends? And just who is driving that blue car.

We've read this book multiple times, with radically different storylines each time. And sometimes my kids prefer just flipping through and looking for the hidden subjects - that's plenty fun, too.

I can't say I have the same concerns that some of the other reviewers have had. I didn't find the pictures objectionable at all. There is a funeral. There are people who may or may not be nude (the people are all of 1/2 inch tall, so how one could make anything out anyway, I'm really not sure). There is one scene that I suppose could be two young men shooting another man but again, with figures that are only 1/2 inch tall, you can certainly interpret the scene differently. I did not see anything sinister until reading another review here. And yes, there is a Batman, and yes, he is standing on a roof. Isn't that what Batman does?

These one star reviews are fairly hilarious. I can only assume that their authors are so puritanical that if there were witch burnings today, they would be the ones leading the mob, torches in hand.

Anyway, I stumbled upon this book at the library and checked it out based on the cover alone. My 19 month old and I just spent 20 minutes with it, and while I was surprised that it had a small section of a nude beach, I was certainly not offended. My kid undoubtedly wasn't either. As for the "mugging" of the guy on roller-skates, I see a guy with a red and white t-shirt roller-blading not too far from where two black guys are skateboarding. It seems like there are some people imposing their own prejudices on what they see. (Hopefully they're never asked to sit on a jury.)

If you and your child like detailed illustrations which allow imaginations to run along various story lines, I highly recommend this book.