The Lost (and Found) Balloon

“Molly O’Doon/ had a balloon/ red and shiny and round,” and she releases it into the sky with a note attached. Evocative illustrations, suggestive of the view from an ascending plane, track the balloon as it floats above motley fields and the brick-red roofs of a housing development, “Each shrinking house/ small like a mouse.” The sun sets, and the balloon drifts over an expanse of water under a full moon, returning with the dawn and settling into the garden of another girl—who happens to be Molly’s next-door neighbor. Jenkins, winner of the 2011 Cheerios Spoonfuls of Stories author contest, tells the tale in pedestrian rhyming couplets (“Katie McCloat/ sat down, read the note”), but Bogade (Ben’s Flying Flowers) provides a modicum of magic with her soaring bird’s-eye perspectives and idiosyncratic combinations of negative space and color. After drawing scenery in black line, Bogade tints select details—the scarlet balloon, the brassy gold of church bells, a bluebird amid green leaves—leaving surrounding areas bare. Like the unfinished coloring book it resembles, however, the narrative proves superficial. Ages 4–8. (June)