Thanksgiving Balloons Inspire a Hoax
The Nantucket Sea Monster: A Fake News Story
About ten years ago, my husband and I visited Nantucket Island. I was interested in Tony Sarg, the puppeteer to designed the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade balloons as upside down marionettes. While doing research, I learned that another artist was planning a book on Sarg.
“Who is it?” I asked.
“Melissa Sweet,” the research librarian said.
The result was the Balloons Over Broadway: The True Story of Puppeteer of Macy’s Parade, written and illustrated by Melissa Sweet.
It won many awards:
2012 Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Medal Winner
2012 NCTE Orbis Pictus Award
2012 Cook Prize honoring the best science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) picture book
2012 The Flora Stieglitz Straus Award
2012 Jefferson Cup Award :: Virginia Library Association
2012 ALA Notable Book
New York Public Library 100 Titles for Reading & Sharing
2012 Golden Kite Award for Picture Book Illustration
And of course, it meant that I couldn’t write a book about Sarg, because Sweet, who at the time had already won a Caldecott Honor for illustrations, would win all the attention, while any book I wrote would probably not sell. I decided to wait.
Waiting to Tell a Story
Here’s the thing. I would never have written the wonderful biography that Sweet did. I was never interested in that part of Sarg’s story. Instead, I was fascinated by an event in 1937 where Sarg’s career with balloons played the major role. I spent time trying to piece together the specific details of that event.
On August 7, 1937, The Mirror and Inquirer newspaper published a story that sent shock waves across the nation: Sea Monster Sighted Off Nantucket.
Sweet mentions this event, which turned out to be a publicity stunt to publicize the Macy’s Parade and Sarg’s sea monster balloon, a new creation for the 1937 parade. But for me, it was the main interest. Why would a businessman pull such a huge publicity stunt? How long did it take to plan such an event? I wanted details.
However, Sweet’s book came out to great fanfare and awards. It wasn’t the time to publish a competing book.
Fake News - A Timely Topic
Fast forward to the 2016 Presidential election. The term, “fake news,” swirled through the political debates. Teachers started asking for a non-political book about fake news.
That’s the long and short of The Nantucket Sea Monster: A Fake News story. It will be published early this fall, in time for teachers to discuss the pros and cons of the First Amendment’s protection of free press.
Junior Library Guild selection
Notable Children’s Book in Children’s Literature
Gallery of Fake News Photos
