Harvey Potter’s Balloon Farm

Nolen, Jerdine. Harvey Potter’s Balloon Farm. New York: Scholastic, Inc., 1994

Harvey Potter’s Balloon Farm is a children’s picture book that takes place in the rolling countryside of a small town on a U.S. Government Inspected Balloon Farm. It is told/narrated from a young African American girl’s point of view. She becomes friends with balloon farmer, Harvey Potter and eventually uses her own methods to grow balloons when she gets older. All the characters are very well developed and include, Harvey Potter, Wheezle Mayfield and the young girl who narrates the book.

The style of the art in the book could be considered cartoon because of the simplicity of the objects, yet it is a touch impressionistic because the illustrator plays with the emphasis of light and shadows as well. Some areas of the pictures appear to be very smooth, however others are rough and broken up with many visible brush strokes.

The text and illustrations aren’t completely symmetric rather they enhance each other. Without the illustrations, we wouldn’t completely understand the text, and without the text we wouldn’t understand the illustrations. They are done with bright colors like “Pleasin’ Purple, Rip-TwoShot Red, and Grassy Green” that literally pop off the page!

Nolen’s book is definitely age appropriate, because I don’t know that there is one specific target age for it. I read it as a child and loved it, and I read it again today and my mind still swirls with what it would be like to see a real balloon farm. The perfect book for a creative, light-hearted individual!