I think I am dealing with my birthday is coming-what are you doing with your life-30 is looming-crisis-by looking at/reading lots of children's books. It's my way of stopping time and remembering the wonderful innocence of childhood. This book is a gem. The illustrations are just too sweet. Plus, the little girl is named Emily, could it get any better? ( )

A heartbreaker with a sad ending ( )

I had mixed feelings about this book. The main reason I did not like this was from the point of view it was told in. How the story is written, makes it seems like it is through third person; it refers to the characters from an outside perspective. However, at some points through the text, it is meant to seem as though the characters themselves are speaking, but no speech indicator is given. For example at one point in the story it says, " One afternoon, Emily got a balloon", clearly the point of view here is represented in third person. However, in another part of the story it says, " Again"? ; this section is through first person of Emily, but in the text there is no indication of that. This may be a hard concept to understand for a young reader. I did enjoy the illustrations in this story very much though; the pictures throughout the book are all hand drawn and have a child like feel to them. This is perfect for this story since it would be more appropriate for a younger audience. The main message of the story is friendship. ( )

In my opinion, this was a very good book. "Emily's Balloon" is about a young girl who gets a balloon one afternoon. She loves her balloon but seems to keep letting it go and float to the ceiling. Her mother decides to tie a spoon to the balloon so it doesn't fly away. But when Emily goes outside, the wind blows her balloon into a tree where her mother can't reach it. This upsets Emily because she wanted to do a number of activities with her balloon later that night. The book ends with Emily's mother promising to get the balloon down from the tree tomorrow and Emily looking out the window and saying "goodnight" to her balloon. The first reason I liked this book was for it's simple language. It uses simple sentences like "One afternoon, Emily got a balloon." or "Emily and the balloon went into the yard." These are great sentences for children learning to read. Second, I thought the plot of the book was perfect. It starts of happy with Emily playing and enjoying her balloon then moves to conflict when she loses it, and then to a resolution when her mother promises to get the balloon down from the tree in the morning. The illustrations were on point as they depict what the text is saying for each page. I think the big idea/message from this book is to not panic or get sad when something goes wrong because sometimes things aren't as bad as they seem. ( )

This book is about a little girl who has a balloon as a friends but slowly the balloon starts to deflate. She learns that the balloon will always be her friends but is sad at the same time. ( )