Module 4 : The Twenty-One Balloons

http://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CAcQjRw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fblogs.slj.com%2Fafuse8production%2F2012%2F05%2F22%2Ftop-100-childrens-novels-64-the-twenty-one-balloons-by-william-pene-du-bois%2F&ei=I6pjVLTwNLD2iQKW7oGIBQ&bvm=bv.79189006,d.aWw&psig=AFQjCNEhviuTIFBj1klWOmJulchKTHJrpw&ust=1415904147124506

SUMMARY

This Newbery Award winning book begins as a retired school teacher, Professor Sherman builds a hot air balloon house which fails, and he lands on a fantasy island. Once he spends a year alone in his travels, the people of his country want to know what he saw during that time.

Once his hot air balloon house fails, he lands on an island is full of diamonds, wealth, and the people on the island are quite the inventors. They live in a mostly worry free world, other than a big volcano that may erupt at any given time. However, they are fully prepared to make a mass exit in the even that happens. 

The volcano of the Krakatoa Island erupts, and Professor Sherman along with the other islanders climb aboard their invention which is a platform that is held afloat by twenty one balloons. This invention gets him back home safely, to which he is able to finally describe his adventures. 

APA REFERENCE
Bois, W. (1947). The twenty-one balloons,. New York: Viking Press.

IMPRESSIONS

This books was a fun and imaginative read, full of inventions, diamonds, and beaches. To a small extent, it resembles the Disney movie "Up". Some of the chapters were lengthy, and had some irrelevant information, but being the book was published in 1947, author William Pene Du Bois was ahead of his time.

PROFESSIONAL REVIEW
[Review of the book The Twenty One Balloons by William Pene Du Bois]. Kirkus Review retrieved on November 1, 2014 from https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/william-pene-dubois-4/the-twenty-one-balloons-2/.

Fanciful adventures of Professor Sherman, who wanted to retire for a year's vacation in a balloon. He broke the 8-Days Around the World record; he landed in a volcanic heaving island of the Pacific; he saw solid diamond mines, the incredible islanders and their incredible way of life, and with the help of a volcanic eruption, he managed the rest of the trip and came home to San Francisco's Explorers' Club to recount his adventures. His Odyssey is a blend of Gulliver and the Oz books -- straight adventure fantasy, flimsy fun. Mr. duBois has done his own beguiling pictures.

LIBRARY USES
This books has had a cover upgrade, and a library lesson could be to compare the original cover with the new cover and explain how publishers are making covers more detailed to entice readers and to shed some insight on what the book is about. The new cover is easier for the reader to infer what the book is about.