Miss Eva and the Red Balloon - Hardcover

Karen M. Glennon

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0671688545 ISBN 13: 9780671688547

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing, 1990

Synopsis

Miss Eva, an old-fashioned schoolmarm, leads a routine life until one of her students gives her a magic balloon

About this title

From School Library Journal:

Grade 1-3-- This tale of self-expression fails to make its message clear. An ordinary day in a second-grade teacher's routine supposedly becomes extraordinary when she is given a magic balloon by one of her pupils. That evening, her house is mysteriously transformed into a three-ring circus, and Miss Eva entertains her neighbors with high-flying trapeze stunts. In the morning, seemingly permanently altered by her nocturnal antics and now clad in her circus costume, she heads off as usual to school. When she leaves the balloon with the traffic cop, its effect on him is immediate: a bouquet of flowers grows from his hip pocket. The fantasy element is not fully developed here. Readers never learn why that particular balloon is magical, whether or not Adam or his father were aware of the toy's power, or where the midnight circus went when Miss Eva left for school. The inherent problems with the story get no help from the illustrations. With Fellini-esque touches such as a mouse peering out of a clown's crotch, Poppel's smoky watercolors and cluttered drawings overwhelm the slight text. Not only do the characters look the same--garishly cartoonlike with slightly sinister expressions--but also the action in the pictures often ignores what is written. A weak story paired with inappropriate illustrations results in an inauspicious picture book. --Dorothy Houlihan, White Plains Public Library, NY
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
• Publication date: 1990
• ISBN 10: 0671688545
• ISBN 13: 9780671688547
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Hans Poppel