The Red Balloon

The Red Balloon
by Albert Lamorisse/ published 1956 by Delacourte Press

Again, if you were a child of a certain era, The Red Balloon was more than a movie and a book, it was a way of life. It was a stolen moment that encapsulates the fight against everything that seems closed-in or monotonous about life. It was to "rebelle" against anything that was black and white and ordinary like school or dreams not coming true or the bully with an eye on you.

He climbed up the lamppost, untied the balloon and ran off with it to the bus station. But the conductor knew the rules, "No dogs," he said. "No large packages, no balloons."
People with dogs walk.
People with packages take taxis.
People with balloons leave them behind.

Gosh, I loved this book as a kid. It amazes me that at two years old my son is equally entranced by it, even never having watched the film. There is something about that big red balloon and the fact that it listens to the boy and at the end the entire world of balloons saves the day and whisks him away from all his pain and sorrow. I also remember being particularly fascinated that the story took place in Paris. How the streets looks so old and curvy and so different from the dirt road/ Spanish moss/ windblown/ ocean/ barefoot childhood of my youth.