Monkey longs for Owl's red balloon, but his strigine companion has no interest in trading, no matter how many things he offers in exchange. Eventually he comes up with a sock, a very special sock with a star on it and a hole in just the right place. Unfortunately, as Owl enumerates the virtues of the sock, clearly starting to covet it, Monkey begins to feel that he too is uninterested in sharing...

A humorous picture-book that is (as the front dust-jacket blurbs definitively states) NOT about sharing, I Have a Balloon pairs an amusing back-and-forth narrative from first-time author Ariel Bernstein with appealing artwork from veteran illustrator Scott Magoon. Recommended to anyone looking for children's stories with a sharper, not-so-sweet, offbeat sense of humor, akin to a Jon Klassen book. ( )

A super fun and funny book about an owl and a monkey trying to negotiate a trade between a red balloon and a sock with a star and a perfectly shaped hole. The deadpan deliveries and wacky illustrations make this a great read aloud book. ( )