Background and Summary
William Pene du Bois was born in New Jersey in 1916. He was an author and illustrator of books for children and young adults. He wrote his best-seller, The Twenty-One Balloons, in 1947, and in 1948 he won the Newbery Medal. In this book, Du Bois brilliantly mixes historical facts with fantasy and science fiction. The setting of the story takes place on the Pacific Island, Krakatau. Historically, as well as in the novel, the volcanic island of Krakatau blew up in the biggest explosion ever to take place. While the setting of the story is realistic, the plot is fictional.
The story begins in media res with Professor William Waterman Sherman floating in the Atlantic Ocean, desperately holding onto twenty balloons for support. Luckily, he is found by a passing steamship. Sherman had been seen last month beforehand leaving San Francisco as a retired math teacher in search of a new adventure. His departure from San Francisco differed from most because he took off in a giant balloon. Now, four weeks later, he is found with twenty balloons in the Atlantic Ocean. This story gained popularity in the media, and the whole world waited to hear the story behind the twenty balloons. After several days’ rest and an extravagant welcome, the professor retells his journey in front of a curious audience.
Professor Sherman’s flight started out uneventful. His giant balloon worked better than he imagined and he was flying carefree for several days until a seagull attacked his balloon, forcing him to land on the stranded island of Krakatau. Once he lands, he discovers that this island is far from ordinary. The twenty families that inhabit the island have a secret they are hiding from the rest of the world. The secret is that the island is filled with diamond mines. The mines contain more diamonds than anywhere else in the world, making Krakatau the wealthiest place on earth. Each year, the inhabitants sail to the outside world and sell the diamonds to receive supplies for their hidden civilization. These supplies aid in building the whimsical and elaborate houses that each of the families live in. All the houses are unique because each one contains an invention. Each family designs and constructs his own invention. Even the children design and construct their own version of a merry-go-round. Everyone living on the island is innovative, creative, and talented. These qualities set the people apart. They are wealthy, smart, clever, and resourceful, but secluded and hidden from the rest of the world. While the families live in complete luxurious isolation, the volcano rumbles every hour of the day. This rumble gives Professor Sherman the inkling that someday it will explode. But when he shares his thoughts about the volcanic explosion with the families, they are insistent that something like that could never happen to them. Even so, they have an escape route in plan.
The volcano does erupt, and blows up the entire island of Krakatau. The families escape on a platform held aloft by twenty balloons. As the platform drifts west, the families parachute off to countries of their choice to begin their new lives. Sherman, the only one without a parachute, remains on the platform, and eventually descends into the Atlantic Ocean, where he is rescued. When the professor concludes his story, the crowd goes wild with pride and excitement. The book ends, and seemingly gives way to a sequel, as Professor Sherman tells the people that he intends to build another balloon that will last a year in the air.
Interest
This book will interest students from the 5th grade through 12th grade. The simple, easy-to-understand plot can capture the attention of a 5th grader, while the intricate details of balloon creation and engineering can interest a high school senior. Some adolescents might be disinterested if they find out that this novel was written in 1947, but enjoyment is guaranteed if they give this novel a chance.
This novel has a strong appeal to boys because of its amount of adventure. Professor Sherman, even as an older man, has a sense of adventure. He longs to travel and explore the world. He is impulsive and passionate about things that he loves such as balloons, inventions, food, and so forth. Another reason boys would love this novel is that the story is filled with inventions. The author goes into great detail about the inventions on Krakatau such as merry-go-rounds, floating beds, and flying platforms. Girls might not be interested in this book because of the amount of detail given to building, creating, and inventing things. But, they will enjoy some aspects of the book including the main character, Professor Sherman. He is funny, easy to follow, and likable. The reader is also able to climb inside his mind and see his thoughts about the island, the inhabitants, and the inventions.
Developing Mature Readers
This book differs from many other Newbery Medal winners because its characters are not adolescents. This difference makes it difficult to trace the tasks of developing a mature reader. But, several developmental tasks are clearly portrayed in this novel.
The task of choosing an occupation clearly appears throughout the novel. Professor Sherman is a retired math teacher and speaks of his former occupation as something that he once loved. He speaks of the students that brought him great joy. While on the island, each of the inhabitants has a specific talent that he or she utilizes. Many of the inhabitants are gifted with their hands. They create and build different inventions. The talents of the inhabitants define who they are. Adolescents can relate to this task because they are starting to realize their skills and how they might want to develop those into a career.
The novel also deals with the task of developing a set of values. The people on the island are extremely wealthy and greedy. They do not want anyone outside of the island to know about the diamond mine for fear of losing their wealth. Because they live in isolation, they believe their lives are perfect. Although they have every material good imaginable, their lives are empty and unfulfilling. Nobody develops relationships of any kind with anyone else because they live in seclusion. The reader learns that having money or anything else in excess is worthless. Because of today’s American society, adolescents face the draw of money, wealth, and materialism on a daily basis. They would strongly relate to this task.
Finally, the novel deals with the developmental task of gaining a sense of accomplishment. Professor Sherman is a retired math teacher who takes up the hobby of inventing and creating balloon contraptions. He helps design a balloon that takes him across the world. His hobby of creating and inventing comes in handy on the island of Krakatau as each person on the island constructs his own invention. Therefore, this hobby contributes to his sense of accomplishment. Through this developmental task, adolescents are urged to develop hobbies and use their skills to create self-confidence. This stepping stone to maturity is encountered often with American teenagers.
Potential Issues
For the most part, this book is simply an entertaining adventure story. But, a few minor objectionable elements are found in the novel. According to factsonfiction.org, an issue of morality develops when the Professor lies about his occupation as a professor at a non-existing school. He does not apologize for the lie, but a teacher could discuss with his class the importance of telling the truth in every situation, big or small. Another objectionable element is found in one of the character’s crude language. An inhabitant on the island says “Good Lord” several times. This would not be an issue in a public school, but some Christian school parents might be offended.
Recommendation
I greatly enjoyed this book. It was a fun, entertaining book that I want to read over and over again. The content of the story is not only appropriate for all ages, but is creative and innovative as well. I appreciate that the author combined fact with fiction. The result of mixing the two is a fascinating historical story. When it comes to teaching this story in the classroom, there are many positive elements of the story that make it worth reading. Du Bois uses extensive vocabulary words and witty plays-on-words that will push adolescents to a higher comprehension level. But, to be honest, this book did not deal with any serious issues explicitly. The author did portray subtle messages about greed and excessive wealth, but they were faint undertones. The intention of the author in writing the book was merely to entertain the reader. Therefore, I would without a doubt recommend this book for outside reading to an adolescent of any age whether in Christian or Public school.
Resources for Teaching or Research
If I ever chose to teach this book in my classroom, I found some great resources that would help enhance my students’ reading experience. The website called www.literatureplace.com contains an in-depth unit plan on the entire book. The goal of this resource is to help students of all learning styles understand the book to the fullest degree that they can. This website offers accommodations for students with special needs. Since there are so many inventions in the book itself, this website offers ideas for students to express themselves using art to invent their own contraptions.
Another site that offers educational resources is www.bookrags.com. This website seems to be a tried and true, go-to site for lesson plans, study guides, discussion questions and character analysis. This website is helpful in clarifying the underlying themes and morals of the book. It also has paper topics that students can choose from for a literary analysis paper. One of my favorite elements of bookrags is the section on literary quality. This section gives honest evaluation of the book and portrays its best and worst characteristics.
Teaching Strategies
Since this book contains so many large vocabulary words, I would have students create a vocabulary journal. Every time they come across or word or phrase that they do not understand, they should look it up, define it, and use it in a sentence.
Because this book does not have much serious content to analyze, I would probably not have a student write a theme paper on this book. Instead, I might have my students write an informative paper on how hot air balloons work. This gives the student the opportunity to learn something new that he probably does not know. The opportunity to research it for himself will make the learning experience more concrete.
Finally, to ensure comprehension, I would have students write chapter summaries at the end of each chapter. A reflection on his or her reading will prove to be helpful in the long run when trying to write a difficult paper at the end of a unit. The more exposure a student has to writing, the easier it will be to adjust to paper writing in college. Not only will writing benefit the student in college, it will put the student on the road to being an articulate person.
Works Cited
"Facts on Fiction : Book Reviews." Facts on Fiction: Book Reviews. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Apr.
2013.
"The Twenty-One Balloons Plot Summary." BookRags. BookRags, n.d. Web. 18 Apr. 2013
"The Twenty One Balloons." Literatureplace. n.d. Web. 18 Apr. 2013.
Pène, Du Bois, William. The Twenty-One Balloons. New York: Viking, 1947. Print.
