Where Do Balloons Go? An Uplifting Mystery

Anyone who has ever let go of a balloon string and watched the bright object go up and up and out of sight will appreciate this whimsical picture book that ponders the age-old question Where Do Balloons Go? This "uplifting mystery"--examined in singsong rhyme by Jamie Lee Curtis and playfully explored with Roz Chast-like illustrations by Laura Cornell--is a new offering from the team behind Today I Feel Silly, When I Was Little, and Tell Me Again About the Night I Was Born.

Where do they go
when they float far away?
Do they ever catch cold
and need somewhere to stay?

"Do they tango with airplanes? / Or cha-cha with birds? / Can plain balloons read / balloons printed with words?" Cornell's splashy colorful spreads (one which folds out to four full pages) pop with plenty of witty details. One balloon, for example, waits nervously with a suitcase outside the Bates Motel. In a balloon-ridden urban scenario, advertisements promote balloon-friendly services such as "The Detanglers, professionals since 1934." This exuberant book will have you half-believing that balloons are people, too. Next time your child's balloon drifts away, it'll be much easier for him or her to imagine it dancing in Bolivia than caught up in phone wires! (Ages 4 to 8) --Karin Snelson