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My name is Susan Pattison and I am 42 years old. My father is an English descendant and my mother, a Dutch. I was born in Zimbabwe where we lived for 4 years. I have 2 younger brothers and after living in England for 10 years, we emigrated to Australia in 1986.
I went to a public school in the Illawarra region in NSW. I am married and have 2 gorgeous little girls. Taya is 5 years and Teagan, who is 2 years. We live in Albion Park NSW, which is about 45 minutes south of Sydney.
I currently work as a Nurse at our largest regional hospital.
My hobbies include gardening, home renovations, fundraising, scrapbooking and everything that comes with being a mum.
I used to write small poems when I was a teenager. I found a couple that I had written all those years ago when I was going through some old packing boxes. One was about my dad fixing cars, another about my mum and how much she hates cooking. Another was about my brother and the time he went fishing and the fourth was about my youngest brother and how he leaves his lego pieces all over the floor. Wow, we have all grown so much since then.
Mr Moon’s Balloons originated from the time, we as a family, went to a local fair in early spring. It was a particularly windy day but the sun was shining and after a cold dreary winter, this day was welcomingly warm. My eldest daughter absolutely loves balloons and was so chuffed when a stallholder gave her one free. A little while later a gust of wind whipped the balloon out of Taya’s hand and off it went into the air. She was so distraught and inconsolable. Then I came up with the idea that Mr Moon would collect her balloon. Instantly she settled and became her happy, cheery self again. This total turnaround reaction had me thinking and now, here I am, an author!
Reviewed by Karen Pirnot for Readers' Favorite
Susan Pattison offers an interesting concept in her book for young children called Mr. Moon's Balloons. Various colored balloons escape from the hands of children at the fair. They drift up into the sky and the wind sets them free to float up to the moon. Mr. Moon is absolutely delighted with the various array of colors and he leaves the balloons free to intermingle with the rain, where the colors become part of the rainbow. While the concept is a bit of a stretch for all but the very youngest readers, it is a novel approach on what happens to "escaped" balloons.
The illustrations in Mr. Moon's Balloons are quite lovely and they will definitely assist young listeners in trying to visualize the rhymes in the story. At times, the meter feels a bit off, but it does not distract much from the central theme if voice inflection is used by the reader. I do like author Pattison's attempt to help children conceptualize a possible purpose to balloons that escape the child's grasp, and for some children, the rainbow ending will be comforting and a positive image. There is an educational component to the story when the colors are named. Readers can ask younger listeners to point to the various colored balloons. It's a fun story to read or to tell a distressed child when a cherished balloon escapes its tether. If the fated balloon has a purpose, younger children will find the loss of their balloon treasures a bit more tolerable.
