Where Do Balloons Go?: An Uplifting Mystery

by Jamie Lee Curtis, Laura Cornell (Illustrator)

Overview

In this thoughtful, comforting book by actress-turned-author Jamie Lee Curtis, a child wonders about what happens to a balloon that is let go, just as a parent would wonder about what might happen to a child once he or she leaves home. Curtis's gentle exploration of the joys and perils of a balloon's life is whimsically brought to life by Laura Cornell's illustrations. Includes a page of reusable vinyl stickers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780060279806
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	08/29/2000
Pages:	36
Sales rank:	197,320
Product dimensions:	10.00(w) x 8.75(h) x 0.36(d)
Lexile:	AD530L (what's this?)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Jamie Lee Curtis is a critically-acclaimed and best-selling author. Her most recent book, Today I Feel Silly and Other Moods That Make My Day enjoyed an extraordinary nine weeks on the New York Times best-seller list. It has sold over 750,000 copies to date. Other best-selling titles include Tell Me Again About The Night I Was Born And When I Was Little: A Four-Year Old's Memoir Of Her Youth. All of Curtis' picture books have been illustrated by the acclaimed artist, Laura Cornell. Her fourth book, Where Do Balloons Go? An Uplifting Mystery will be published in September 2000.

Curtis has demonstrated her versatility as a film actress with starring roles in such acclaimed films as the blockbuster True Lies opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger, for which she earned a Golden Globe Award, and Trading Places with Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd for which she earned a British Film Academy award for Best Supporting Actress. Most recently Jamie starred in Halloween: H2O, which was the 20 year sequel to Halloween, --the now classic film which first brought her to the attention of audiences worldwide. Other memorable leading film role performances include A Fish Called Wanda, Fierce Creatures, Virus, Dominick And Eugene, Blue Steel, My Girl, My Girl II, Forever Young, Mother's Boys, House Arrest and Love Letters.

In television, Curtis co-starred opposite Richard Lewis in the acclaimed sitcom Anything But Love which earned her both a Golden Globe and People's Choice Award, as well as TNT's adaptation of the Wendy Wasserstein play The Heidi Chronicles which also earned her a Golden Globe nomination. More recently, Jamie starred in the CBS telefilm Nicholas' Gift for which she received an Emmy nomination.

Curtis began her Hollywood career in 1977 when she signed on as a contract player with Universal Studios. She was a regular on the television series Operation Petticoat when she was cast in Halloween. That role lead to subsequent roles in Prom Night, Terror Train and The Fog.

Jamie Lee Curtis is the mother of Annie and Thomas. She has been married for 16 years to actor/director Christopher Guest.

Editorial Reviews

In a fun, spirited exploration of an age-old question and one little boy's imagination, author Jamie Lee Curtis and illustrator Laura Cornell take kids along for the ride as they follow the journey of a free-flying balloon in Where Do Balloons Go?: An Uplifting Mystery. This is the same author-illustrator team that brought young readers Tell Me Again About the Night I Was Born and Today I Feel Silly & Other Moods That Make My Day, which spent nine weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. Like its predecessors, Where Do Balloons Go? offers a feast of mental and visual stimulation as it examines the potential joys and perils inherent in a vividly imagined world populated with stray balloons.

With its snappy, rhyming prose and Cornell's colorfully splashy illustrations, Where Do Balloons Go? is both ear- and eye-catching. The open-ended question format should provide plenty of stimulation for active, young imaginations, and the pictures are chock-full of details. And lest that not be enough, there's also a page of vinyl stickers that can be used and reused on the slick, colorful endpapers -- one featuring a cloud-studded sky, the other showing a background of stars and comets in outer space. The book's appeal for young readers is obvious. Far subtler is the entertainment it also provides for adult readers in the slyly humorous details of Cornell's illustrations.

--Beth Amos

barnesandnoble.com

This far-fetched tale by the creators of Today I Feel Silly and Other Moods That Make My Day may well raise youngsters' spirits as verse and art muse fancifully on the possible fates of wayward balloons. Cornell casts the balloons in human roles as the young narrator, a boy who has accidentally let go of his balloon's string, wonders, "Where do they go when they float far away? Do they ever catch cold and need somewhere to stay?" The zany accompanying cartoon pictures show a balloon sitting on the couch in a doctor's waiting room and another approaching a hotel, its string attached to a suitcase. In other scenarios, balloons dine in a restaurant, write postcards home and "cha-cha with birds" on the wing of an airplane, culminating in a four-page fold-out spread of "a big balloon dance." Bursting with color and balloons of all shapes, sizes and functions (many balloons making encore appearances bear clever messages or advertisements), Cornell's busy art provides ample diversion for young readers. Though not as memorable as some of the collaborators' earlier work, this volume, like the high-flying balloon that sets a boy's imagination soaring, is way out there--in a kid-pleasing way. Ages 4-8. (Sept.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.|

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

K-Gr 2-"Where do balloons go when you let them go free?" That's the question explored by this child narrator. All kinds of possibilities are considered: Do they catch cold? Get married? Correspond? And the dangers must be considered: wires, trees, tall buildings, balloon-twisting clowns, and balloon-chasing dogs, not to mention the perils of heat from the sun. And just how far do they go? While there are no definite answers to all this speculation, the fun is in the wondering ("Do they tango with airplanes? Or cha-cha with birds?") and in the whimsical cartoon art that raises the prospects to new heights. Combining small vignettes with double-page spreads and even a four-page foldout, Cornell uses lush watercolors and lots of lettering on unconventionally shaped balloons and vehicles to add plenty of visual humor. The illustrations are riotously colorful, textured, and jam packed with details that extend the basic idea. A lighthearted romp to pore over and enjoy.-Marie Orlando, Suffolk Cooperative Library System, Bellport, NY Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

School Library Journal

As th brightly colored orbs encounter everything from power lines to balloon-twisting clowns, the story evolves into a touching metaphor for parents learning to let their kids go, But it's the witty details in Cornell's illustrations that make this a multigenerational treat.
—Entertainment Weekly

Clarissa Cruz