BALLOON

Featuring just a single word throughout, Handy’s latest picture book centers on a small boy with big feelings about his new balloon.

A Black adult and a toddler—presumably parent and son—are strolling through an unmistakable Central Park; he’s delighted by the orange balloon (“Balloon!”) that he’s just gotten from a park vendor. During an altercation with a pigeon, the boy involuntarily lets go of the balloon’s string and watches his treasured memento float away (“Balloon…”). As he and his parent continue their walk, the boy keeps mistakenly spotting his beloved possession (“Balloon?”): in an assembled crowd (the orange object is really a musician’s beanie), peeking out from behind some park denizens’ blanket (it’s actually an orange Frisbee), and so on. The last time the boy thinks he spies his balloon, it turns out to be the curved back of an orange kitten at a pet-adoption event. He accepts the kitty as a salve for his balloon-pining heart—his persistence has paid off!—but his loyalty compels him to honor his lost keepsake: “Balloon. That’s your name,” he tells the cat. Handy has nimbly blended a sweet story tailor-made for the tenderhearted with a Where’s Waldo?–esque activity suited to more fidgety types. Working with digitally tweaked pen and ink in blooming springtime colors, Kwon inserts the book’s visual game into invitingly bustling scenes that give the big city the feel of a communal gathering.

Handy’s few words speak volumes.