28. Balloons Over Broadway: The True Story of the Puppeteer of Macy’s Parade by Melissa Sweet

 28. Balloons Over Broadway: The True Story of the Puppeteer of Macy’s Parade by Melissa Sweet



Sweet, M. (2011). Balloons over Broadway: the true story of the puppeteer of Macy’s parade.
     NY: Houghton Mifflin. 

This is the story of Tony Sarg.  He began creating simple machines to make things move when he was six years old.  When Tony grew up, he moved to London and began making puppets for children.  His marionettes’ movements were son lifelike; he became very well known.  He then moved to New York City and begin to perform his puppeteering on Broadway.  Macy’s department store heard about Tony’s puppets and asked him to design a puppet parade for the store’s holiday window. Macy’s wanted to put on a parade to honor their employees’ (mostly immigrants) holiday traditions.  Tony created a parade based on street carnivals from all over the world.  He made costumes, built horse-drawn floats and arranged to bring live animals from the zoo.  On Thanksgiving Day 1924 the parade proceeded down the streets of New York.  It was such a success Macy’s decided to hold a parade every year.  Tony got to work designing puppets that were made of rubber and created their movements by attaching sticks. They were part puppet and part balloon.  The event was so popular, that the sidewalks were packed.  He wanted his puppets to float high in the air.  The balloons were made from rubberized silk and filled with helium.  The handlers on the street operated the floating balloon puppets by pulling on ropes as they walked down the crowded streets.  From that day on, every Thanksgiving morning Macy’s held their Thanksgiving Day parade.

This is a fun picture biography about Tony Sarg the famous puppeteer.  I would use this book to begin teaching younger students about biographies.  It has eye-catching artwork that helps tell the story of who Toy Sarg was and how his wonderful balloons became an icon for Thanksgiving and the parade.  The story is easy to follow for younger children.  This book can also be used in a social studies lesson.  Everyone teaches about pilgrims at Thanksgiving.  Before the holiday, throw in a lesson using this book and let the students design their own balloons.  For older students, add it to a science lesson about helium and its effects on the balloons.  How does the wind effect the balloons?  How does the temperature?

I have included two links in this post.  The first is an activity page from the publishers-Houghton Mifflin.  The other is a compilation of resources from Reading is Fundamental.

 

http://www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/kids/resources/BalloonsOverBroadway_ActivityKit.pdf

 

https://www.rif.org/literacy-central/book/balloons-over-broadway


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