A Grown Up Book Report on The 21 Balloons

The 21 Balloons by William Pene Dubois was a fun, quick read. This was the first book I chose to read for my 2 just for fun books this year.

Fun because it talked about  . . .

• Fantastical riches (diamond mines beyond compare)
• A government and society organized around 20 days (which equals 1 month) of different types of food
• Working 1 long day in 20
• 19 days a month (out of 20) where you can read, craft, invent, swim, visit, explore
• Creative inventions that made work easier and play cooler
• Where walking and falling down like a drunk person is normal
•  A hot air balloon ride and hot air balloon escape pod
• All the while living on an island with an active volcano

Since this is a grown up review, I can skip the character sketches, plot summary and book  jacket redesign. Instead I’ll tell what the book made me think about . . .

• The 1969 movie,Krakatoa, East of Java. It has a G rating and I probably saw it that year at the young age of 11. I’ve misremembered it though. As I thought it starred Mia Farrow and included a doomed romance – Which of course I loved.! Maybe someday I’ll have the chance to re-watch this.
• The professor’s dream was to get away from it all for a whole year. His plan was to float high atop the earth in a hot air balloon. My recurring fantasy is to get away for the winter – holed up in a well-stocked, cozy cabin in the wilds of Maine.
• For his hot air balloon  the professor designed and built a little basket house in which to live. I am intrigued by small houses. Someday I’d like to buy one of those prefab tiny homes and put it  on the rooftop of some generous soul’s home, on a dock at a quiet lake, or maybe in some wildflower field. Click here and here and here for more info.
• The professor wanted to go away for a year because he was tired of his job. He needed to follow his bliss. Isn’t it sad that so many people are just putting in time at their place of employment? Of course, if I worked as an arithmetic teacher for 40 years to 10-14 year old boys, I’d want to get away too!

Tell us about your last read. What were your favorite parts? What did it make you think of?

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