Book Review - The Twenty-One Balloons - William Pene duBois

Title: The Twenty-One Balloons
Author: William Pene duBois
Genre: Young Adult

Challenges: 101 Books in 1001 Days Challenge, The Naming Convention Challenge, Book Around the States Challenge, Read and Review Challenge 2010, 2010 Support Your Local Library Reading Challenge, 100 + Reading Challenge, Young Adult Reading Challenge, YA Through the Decades, Audio Book Challenge 2010, Pages Read 2010, A to Z challenge, 1001 Childrens book Before I Grow Up

Rating: 4/5
No. of Pages: Audio (192)
Published: 1947 ( Newbery Medal)


Back Cover: After years of teaching math to reluctant young students in San Francisco, Professor William Sherman Waterman wants a change. He plans a wonderful adventure: he will spend a year sailing around the world in a giant balloon. With his friends waving good-bye on a sunny day in August 1883, he gently flies his balloon above the rowas of city rooftops and floats toward the Pacific Ocean.

But only three weeks later, a freighter in the Atlantic Ocean sights a group of 20 destroyed balloons – and the professor clinging to the wreckage. His tale of a marvelous island harboring unbelievable wealth in the Pacific Ocean and a terrifying disaster there stuns the world. Could this incredible report be true?

Mine: Just like the days of Around the World in 80 Days – the balloon is the key point of the story. The Professor can hardly wait for retirement, when he can leave on his long balloon ride. His plan is to stay in the air for a year, unfortunately he doesn’t make it and lives on an mysterious island with a world of it’s own.
When the island suffers a great volcano eruption, he is sent on his way so that he can tell the story of the island and it’s riches.