The Twenty-One Balloons is a Newbery Award winning book written by William Pene Du Bios. The book is the story of Professor William Waterman Sherman's epic adventure in his hot air balloon. Sherman plans on taking a round the world journey, but finds himself shipwrecked on an unknown island full of amazing inventions, inventors, and treasures. Sherman uses a combination of his balloon and other inventions on the island to create a contraption made up of twenty-one balloons to save the island's inhabitants from the erupting volcano.
I loved this book, I enjoyed reading it very much. I think it is a wonderfully written adventure story. As a librarian I would have no reservations about recommending it to readers, child or adult.
One library programming idea is to have a young readers book club where children would read the book over a period of a month or so, and have weekly meetings about it. The theme of the month could be traveling, or dream vacations. Throughout the month the readers would be asked to put themselves in the position of Sherman and make plans for their own trip. At the very last meeting each member could give a short presentation about their trip.
PROFESSIONAL REVIEW FROM SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL
"An absurd and fantastic tale... Truth and fiction are cleverly mingled.
Bois, W. P. (20051947). The Twenty-One Balloons (Puffin Modern Classics ed.). New York, N.Y.: Puffin Books.
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