  | Full Text Reviews: School Library Journal - 07/01/2016 PreS-Gr 2—Balloons and a trip to the zoo spark a young boy's imagination and remind his mother to listen and pay attention to nurturing that spark. Evan and his mom are in a wonderful place, full of learning and fun. Mom is paying more attention to her smartphone than to her son. When she looks, listens, and sees that Evan needs her attention, she realizes that she must follow him on his journey of discovery about the world around him. Pretty soon, elephants and more are flying all around. This book is a delight on so many levels. All children have asked incessant questions, to the irritation and chagrin of the adults around them. Readers and listeners will relate. This selection also depicts the parent-child dynamic as a black mother and child engage in a universal experience. The illustrations are beautiful and seem almost to spring from the page. The text is framed in comic strip style balloons, and it flows well. There are several pages without words, making this title a good tool for teaching sequencing and making predictions. This is an easy and fun read-aloud that serves to teach many lessons about paying attention and letting our imagination take us where it will. VERDICT A timeless book with a contemporary feel that will satisfy readers and listeners. A solid purchase for most libraries.—Shannan Hicks, J.S. Clark Elementary School, LA - Copyright 2016 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission. Booklist - 10/01/2016 The title question sparks a playful interchange between an African American mother and son visiting a zoo. The child, at first, has trouble getting his mother’s attention—she’s absorbed in her smartphone. But once she realizes her son is asking if a balloon can make his toy elephant fly, not the actual one behind them, she joins in the game. This is a nice touch, as kids will recognize how hard it can be to get parents off their devices. Soon the pair are busy looking at the zoo animals, with the mom tying balloons around their toy counterparts. Newman’s charcoal-and-crayon illustrations move the story from the dark cityscape of the first double-page spread into the vibrant, colorful zoo. The scenes of the little boy tying balloons onto actual zebras’ tails and handing one to a real gorilla will have to be explained as examples of how not to behave around animals. This is an otherwise lovely story about a mom and a son enjoying themselves at the zoo. - Copyright 2016 Booklist. Loading...
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