The Yellow Balloon

This is one of my all-time favorite gift books to friends with young children. At first it appears that it consists of a series of large, highly detailed paintings. On a closer look you can see a series of "stories": a man is arrested in the first panel, escapes from prison in the second, and appears in a striped prison uniform in all the rest of the pages. In the last, he returns home to the house from which he was arrested. Similarly, a man buys a rug in one picture, unfolds it in the next, and is found flying through much of the others until he meets up with... well, take a look! This book is great for pre-literate kids. You can treat it as a puzzle book, or as a story book. I like to use it as a jumping off point for storytelling: where did the giraffe truck come from? Why? Where is the blue car going to go next? How did it get on the island? Is the castle battle real or is it a movie? Can you follow the mountain trail to find out how to get to the bottom? There are many connecting "threads" that flow from page to page (but are not present on every page). Trying to discover them has given us hours of bedtime enjoyment. What I love about this book is its open-endedness. This is far more than a "Where's Waldo" book. Its an opportunity for creativity and discovery.

Such a great concept! Not a single word, but every picture speaks a thousand words about our world and how we are all connected, but still so different. I love the fact that the pictures let you paint the picture you want to see and discover the tiny details and stories behind them. Definitely recommend a glance for every child and adult in this day and age.

Such a gorgeous, beautiful book for your child. I even enjoyed every page of it myself. Beautiful!

This is definately one of the BEST books we own. My 2.5 year old toddler loves it. The detail of the illustration is truly amazing. It has I-spy elements, story lines from tales such as Little Red Riding Hood, Harry Potter so it is interactive and fits different levels of knowledge and kids favorites. I am looking to get other books from this author.

I just spent a week in the Netherlands in December. I bought this book for the lush paintings, and I have read this book to pre schoolers. They are captivated by the exceptional artwork. I did notice some of the inappropriate items people mention. Given how tiny the images are, it still makes a nice book to share with young children. Dutch books in general are very frank. After all, prostitution is legal and you can buy drugs pretty openly here. Many Dutch feel Americans are "prissy" in what is acceptable for a child's book. A very popular Dutch book at the moment is " WHO POOPED on MY HEAD?" A mole comes out of his hole 1 morning and is hit by a poop on the head. On each page , he asks the question over and over, and each animal says no, that there poop looks like this: a picture of poop by various animals. All the things that Americans find distasteful are accepted in Dutch culture. None of the tiny pictures are false: all of these things can happen in life. I did not buy the POOP book because that sort of book would never make it over on this side of the pond!. I just thought I would share another viewpoint.

this book is my favorite book to watch with my one and a half year old daughter. everytime we turn the page she points at the yellow ballon and makes a funny sound. she can also show many other things like vulcano, plane ... many more. with this book you can teach your child the whole world and explain a lot of things about the earth. it's fun to watch for adults as well. GREAT JOB done by the artist!

Love Charlotte Dematons' books. Beautifully illustrated with extraordinary attention to detail. I could stare at some of the pages for hours looking for new details. My boys (2 and 6) both love this book.

The illustrations are amazing, the "story line" is intriguing, the whole concept is fabulous! My boys have enjoyed this book for YEARS!

The book quality is good. Was delivered directly from US by the seller. Has engaged the kid for couple of hours. Specially he shows it to his friend and asks them too, to find the baloon. But the fun may go once he remembers all the baloon location. Adding a story text with locations or information about location on pages could have engaged kids more.

Ogni volta che lo si sfoglia, si scoprono altri dettagli. Tutti i vari personaggi nascosti, in ogni pagina sono stupendi. La mia bambina lo usa da quando ha 12 mesi.

Ein wunderschönes Buch, Art ist wie ein Wimmelbuch, nur nicht so erdrückend viele Bilder auf einer Seite. Das war für uns perfekt und der gelbe Luftballon reist um die Welt und auf jeder Seite ist auch viel Geschichte versteckt und Epochen. Empfehlenswert.

Oh my goodness, this book has been such a hit! We initially took it out from the library and my children (2 and 4 years old) have loved it so much that we have since bought our own copy and bought a number of copies as Christmas gifts too! The pictures and detail are just great, particularly with the concept of needing to spot individuals and objects as they take their own journey across the pages. Just love it. And with the absence of words it means that you end up talking with your kids and getting them properly involved. Definitely worth 5 stars!

言葉のない絵本。黄色い風船が地球の古今東西を旅する。「旅の絵本」地球編、という感じでしょうか。 かなり大きさがあり（33.5×25ｃｍくらい）、これ一冊で、読者は何度でも世界旅行ができる。 「旅の～」は、どこかほのぼのとした優しいタッチで描かれており、建築物や街の構図などが印象的だが、「The Yellow Balloon」は、表紙画像からもわかるように色が美しく鮮やかで、もっと混沌とした世界観。そして、実に細かい！ 舞台は「街」にとどまらず、「海」「空」「サバンナ」「ジャングル」「南極」等々、地球上の様々な場面。 そこには、空想、現実、喜怒哀楽、善悪などなど、本当に様々な要素が隠れている。 最後の夜のシーンなど、空気感が素晴らしい。 そして、隠れているストーリーを宝探しのように探す楽しさ！思わず「あったー！」と声をあげてしまう。裏表紙に「風船」「青い車」「囚人」「空飛ぶじゅうたん」が飛んでいるが、これらがヒント。 プレゼントにも、きっと喜ばれそうな絵本です。