My Red Balloon

We read this book to little ones for Veteran's Day. It helps them understand what families and veterans go through to serve in the military... and in a way that little kids can understand without any explanation of what war is like or death. This book is also god for part of emotional intelligence as you can walk through the book and discuss how everyone feels.

This is a great book to share in my military heavy class. Many of my students have experienced the joy of a parent returning home.

This book was very popular with my second grade classes. It is good for teaching character study. I recommend this book to others.

it was a gift for my grandson.he enjoyed the story.so the gift made both our days!

The waiting is over, and one little boy is headed to the pier to meet his sailor Daddy, who is finally coming home. Tied around his wrist is a red balloon that is shaped like a heart, with the words 'Welcome Home' printed on it. This is how the boy's Daddy will find him easily in the bustling crowd at the pier. He won't look at the band, or the woman giving out flowers, or the tall, tall man who is waiting for his daughter. He will look straight at the red balloon that is shaped like a heart and find his family waiting for him. But suddenly, the balloon comes loose, and no one can grab it before it floats up into the sky. How will his Daddy find him in that big crowd without the balloon, and will he still know his little boy after such a long time away?This is my final Veteran's Day post, and I've saved the best for last. I love books that reveal the secret fears of children and help them get resolved in the safe context of a story. The beginning of this story makes it clear that this is not the first time the boy's father has gone away and come back, but it is the first time that he has been afraid that his father won't know him. Fear and anxiety is always new, and this story does a good job of discussing it without making you feel like you're in a therapy session. The story feels like it's about the descriptions, the cereal for breakfast, the gigantic ship that brings the sailors, the girl who tries to hold his balloon string and, of course, the red balloon that is shaped like a heart. But when the balloon slips away and the boy has to face his true fear, we all realize what the story has been about the whole time. The boy needs to understand that although the balloon pointed his father in the right direction, he didn't need it to know them at all.My daughters all enjoyed this story. They were so delighted with the pictures and descriptions of balloons and banners and bands and flowers that the real message of the story kind of sneaked up on them at the end, which is exactly the point. We all learn best when we don't realize we're being taught something. My four year old was the biggest surprise. I did not expect her to like this one, but she just loved the big boat. She always came back to it, enchanted by the idea of a boat as big as a building, so big that the top of it didn't even show in the picture once it was docked at the pier. As I mentioned in my Veteran's Day post, my husband never deployed, but this book is about the heart, the feeling of a homecoming, and that is something that all kids can relate to. And I feel that the more that kids are exposed to the experiences that other kids go through, the better it will be for them. This is one of the reasons I love picture books so much- they are the one hundred percent best way to expose children to the "other." In a picture book, what would be different, confusing, and scary suddenly becomes engaging, accessible and relatable.[...]

Many of the deployment books are poorly made, either in illustrations or binding quality. My Red Balloon has beautiful illustrations, and is a book that will hold up through your whole deployment, or several deployments in our case. It made me cry the first several times we read it, but it does help the child to picture how chaotic and exciting a homecoming is, and it helps the whole family to prepare for Daddy's arrival. It shows a Naval homecoming, and my husband is a Marine, but the general idea is the same. I think this book is an excellent companion to "Red White and Blue Goodbye," which is similar but talks about leaving.

Good for anyoneStory of dad coming homeEndearing

we got this from the library a year ago or so. my boys were 2 and 5 at the time. the older one cried and told me never to read it to him again. cute, huh? anyway. my husband is in the navy and our kids have gone through this themselves. i thought it was a very cute book with a very good idea behind it.