The Yellow Balloon

by Charlotte Dematons

Book Overview

Writer and illustrator Charlotte Dematons brings the same enchanting look to this picture book that made her Worry Bear and Looking for Cinderella so successful. Lovely watercolors portray a great and... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1932425012
• ISBN13: 9781932425017
• Release Date: April 2004
• Publisher: Lemniscaat USA
• Length: 32 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 10.0" x 13.0"
• Age Range: 2 years and up
• Grade Range: Preschool and higher

Customer Reviews

Outstanding book to read with your child!

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.

Superb book on many levels

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.

The Yellow Balloon

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

we LOVE this 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.

great picture book

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.