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jonh 's review for:
The Twenty-One Balloons
by William Pène du Bois
Professor William Waterman Sherman, tired of his life as a teacher and of people in general, sets out in a hot air balloon to travel the world and avoid human interaction. (Balloon aside, these are goals.) Unforeseen circumstances result in the loss of his balloon and all his belongings, and Professor Sherman finding himself stranded on the island of Krakatoa. Far from deserted, however, Krakatoa hosts a population of 20 families--each comprised of a husband, a wife and two children--who, with the financial assistance of a massive diamond mine, have built lavishly furnished houses and established a gourmet-based government without any detection from the outside world.
The bulk of The Twenty-One Balloons comprises Professor Sherman's tour of the island, from the man-made structures to the strange geographical features resultant of the supposedly-dormant volcano at the island's center. But, as revealed at the beginning of this tale and true to our real-life world, the Krakatoa volcano erupts, throwing the island paradise and its inhabitants into chaos. It's an adventurous story and no less exciting knowing that Professor Sherman is the one telling it to us.
I love stories within stories. Meta-narratives are my bread and butter. The Twenty-One Balloon thus satisfies, as it is both the story of Professor Sherman's adventures around the globe and the story of his return home and subsequent telling of his adventure. There's even an intermission, giving both audiences (us and the one in the story) a nice little breather from all the suspense. And this adds an interesting quality to the narrative, as we are reading it in Professor Sherman's voice, with his asides to the audience, and in the performative setting of an auditorium.
Beyond that, The Twenty-One Balloons is a fabulously inventive book. Based in part on scientific principles and real-life geographic fact, Pene du Bois grounds his (sometimes literal) flights of fancy in logic, providing accompanying illustrations of many of the island's inventions to justify their functionality. And it should be noted that this is a period book: written in the 1947, the Krakatoa volcano erupted in 1883. This means Pene du Bois is able to comment on then-innovations that became common in a wry, absurd way. Electricity, for example. Professor Sherman and his host encounter an invention in one of the houses involving an electric current. Furniture bumper cars, a modern audience would recognize. But to Sherman and his host, the device seems ridiculous and monstrously unsafe: soon proven to be so when it tips the host out the window.
I also appreciate the brevity of Pene du Bois's storytelling. So much adult fiction feels padded to me: trying to add detail to obfuscate plot points, trying to be clever. But a children's story like The Twenty-Balloons doesn't concern itself with plot twists and turns. As I said, one of the most exciting parts of the story is revealed at the beginning! The Twenty-One Balloons just tells a good, solid story. No frills. And no surprises beyond the ones we discover alongside Professor William Waterman Sherman.
Simply put, The Twenty-One Balloons is a simple story, fully realized. Chock full of creative ideas, Pene du Bois goes to great lengths to explain those ideas in full, to make them real. Admittedly, there are certain elements of this story that--though acceptable at the time--might raise a few eyebrows now. Nothing like the colonialism of Babar, say, but there's some vocabulary in here you'd want to discuss with your kids. (If you have kids. I just talk to myself about it.) But don't let that discourage you from picking it up. It's wonderful story, wonderfully told.
I loved The Twenty-One Balloons as a kid, forgot about it for years, and am glad to have found it again, because it definitely hold up. Check it out!
The bulk of The Twenty-One Balloons comprises Professor Sherman's tour of the island, from the man-made structures to the strange geographical features resultant of the supposedly-dormant volcano at the island's center. But, as revealed at the beginning of this tale and true to our real-life world, the Krakatoa volcano erupts, throwing the island paradise and its inhabitants into chaos. It's an adventurous story and no less exciting knowing that Professor Sherman is the one telling it to us.
I love stories within stories. Meta-narratives are my bread and butter. The Twenty-One Balloon thus satisfies, as it is both the story of Professor Sherman's adventures around the globe and the story of his return home and subsequent telling of his adventure. There's even an intermission, giving both audiences (us and the one in the story) a nice little breather from all the suspense. And this adds an interesting quality to the narrative, as we are reading it in Professor Sherman's voice, with his asides to the audience, and in the performative setting of an auditorium.
Beyond that, The Twenty-One Balloons is a fabulously inventive book. Based in part on scientific principles and real-life geographic fact, Pene du Bois grounds his (sometimes literal) flights of fancy in logic, providing accompanying illustrations of many of the island's inventions to justify their functionality. And it should be noted that this is a period book: written in the 1947, the Krakatoa volcano erupted in 1883. This means Pene du Bois is able to comment on then-innovations that became common in a wry, absurd way. Electricity, for example. Professor Sherman and his host encounter an invention in one of the houses involving an electric current. Furniture bumper cars, a modern audience would recognize. But to Sherman and his host, the device seems ridiculous and monstrously unsafe: soon proven to be so when it tips the host out the window.
I also appreciate the brevity of Pene du Bois's storytelling. So much adult fiction feels padded to me: trying to add detail to obfuscate plot points, trying to be clever. But a children's story like The Twenty-Balloons doesn't concern itself with plot twists and turns. As I said, one of the most exciting parts of the story is revealed at the beginning! The Twenty-One Balloons just tells a good, solid story. No frills. And no surprises beyond the ones we discover alongside Professor William Waterman Sherman.
Simply put, The Twenty-One Balloons is a simple story, fully realized. Chock full of creative ideas, Pene du Bois goes to great lengths to explain those ideas in full, to make them real. Admittedly, there are certain elements of this story that--though acceptable at the time--might raise a few eyebrows now. Nothing like the colonialism of Babar, say, but there's some vocabulary in here you'd want to discuss with your kids. (If you have kids. I just talk to myself about it.) But don't let that discourage you from picking it up. It's wonderful story, wonderfully told.
I loved The Twenty-One Balloons as a kid, forgot about it for years, and am glad to have found it again, because it definitely hold up. Check it out!