You Can't Take a Balloon Into the Metropolitan Museum

My rating:

In this wordless book, Weitzman has crafted a fun, amusing adventure, where the reader cares what the outcome will be, and may also absorb something about art along the way. A little girl and her grandmother visit the museum, only to be told by a guard that she must leave her balloon behind. The girl is reluctant to do so, but the guard ties her balloon to a post. A pigeon pecks the balloon free, and the guard—joined by other people the balloon has affected—chases the balloon throughout the city as it goes on a hilarious adventure, desperate to get the balloon back before the girl and her grandmother leave.

There is a lovely balance of moving between the balloon's adventure, and what the girl and her grandmother are doing, the art they're seeing. The little girl is clearly attached to her balloon, and felt badly leaving it, so this, along with switching between the balloon and the girl, increases the tension as we worry whether or not the balloon will make it back in time for the girl to get it back.

Reproductions of famous artwork are inserted throughout the pages, as the girl and her grandmother gaze at them. There are just enough to remain interesting and fun, with the wonderful illustrated story quickly moving us along. Alert readers may enjoy seeing that the adventures the balloon is having is echoed in the famous artwork, which adds another layer to the story. Artwork reproduced in the story is listed at the very end of the book, for interested readers.

Glasser's lively ink, watercolor, gouache, and colored pencil illustrations are closely observed drawings of people and things. The detailed drawings capture different people, personalities, etc. in an expressive, fun way, and visually, there is so much to look at that readers may want to spend a long time on each page, or go back and view the whole story again.

The main action is in color, with the rest of the surroundings, including people, being ink illustrations, so the forward motion of the story is easy to follow, and readers know what to pay attention to, what matters most. There are often three or more panels on each page, each enjoyable to view.

The drawings are so expressive, and clearly follow each other, that it is easy to follow the story, to see what is happening and even imagine what is being said. This is an enjoyable romp through the adventures of one yellow balloon through a city, and a girl and her grandmother's perusing through a museum. Highly recommended.

If you enjoy this book, Weitzman and Glasser have two others with the same characters and a different colored balloon—You Can't Take A Balloon Into The National Gallery (2001) and You Can't Take A Balloon Into The Museum Of Fine Arts (2002).