You know how you remember little bits of a story, but not enough to find it again? That is what happened to me with Harvey Potter's Balloon Farm. All I remembered was balloons growing out of the ground and how much just the idea made me smile. I tried looking up books about balloons, but could not find the book that niggled at my memory. (You would think I would have remembered it was a FARM!)
Then, one day while walking my dog with illustrator and fellow writer, Carolyn Conahan, I mentioned my search for the balloon book. "Oh, Harvey Potter's Balloon Farm!" said Carolyn. "We have that." And sure enough, that was it, a Balloon Farm! I can't believe I did not remember the cow on the cover.
Rereading it, I felt that same feeling: what a wonderful idea! The plot is a bit thin, but the pictures more than make up for it with fields full of bright, candy colored, balloons. This book is just a bit different. Farmers in overalls dancing under the moon. Monster balloons growing out of the ground. I particulary like that the first person main character is a black girl, even though there is no mention of race or gender in the text. Read this and smile and wish it were true. A Balloon Farm!
- Harvey Potter's Balloon Farm by Jerdine Nolen, illustrated by Mark Beuhner
- Publisher: HarperCollins; 1st edition (April 29, 1994)
- ISBN-10: 0688078877
- ISBN-13: 978-0688078874
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