Alphie’s Goodbye Storytime with Special Guests: Between the Balloons with Artist E.A. KAHANE and Tom Toro for Aperture Kids

Larger-than-life balloon characters, marching bands, and delightful surprises fill every page of this magical take on the famed Thanksgiving Day Parade. A playful blend of photography and illustration, Between the Balloons reveals that with imagination anything you see can become something extraordinary. Let your imagination fly after the reading with an artmaking activity!

Copies of Between the Balloons will be available for purchase at the event and in the museum bookstore.

E.A. KAHANE is an artist whose photographic practice transforms images into immersive encounters. Her work has been shown at Art Center Sarasota, Florida; Museo Mille Miglia and MO.CA, Brescia; and New York Historical; a solo exhibition will take place at Sarasota Art Museum, Florida, in 2027. Her work is included in the permanent collections of the Brooklyn Museum; New York Historical; Newport Art Museum, Rhode Island; Barack Obama Foundation, Chicago; and Museo Mille Miglia, Brescia, Italy. Between the Balloons, her first children’s book, was inspired by her photobook Come Join the Parade!! 25 Years from My Third Floor Window (2024). KAHANE divides her time between New York, Rhode Island, Florida, and Brescia, where she can be seen photographing landscapes, car races, parades, and portraits.

Tom Toro has published hundreds of cartoons in The New Yorker and his drawings have appeared in The New York Times, The Paris Review, and other major publications. Toro’s children’s books include Crocodiles Need Friends, Too! (2025), Back to School, Backpack! (with Simon Rich, 2023), I’m Terrified of Bath Time (with Simon Rich, 2022), and How to Potty Train Your Porcupine (2020). He lives in Portland, Oregon, with his family, and too many cats.

Aperture is a nonprofit publisher that leads conversations around photography worldwide. From our base in New York, Aperture connects global audiences and supports artists through our acclaimed quarterly magazine, books, exhibitions, digital platforms, public programs, limited-edition prints, and awards. Established in 1952 to advance “creative thinking, significantly expressed in words and photographs,” Aperture champions photography’s vital role in nurturing curiosity and encouraging a more just, tolerant society.