The Twenty-One Balloons (Puffin Modern Classics)

Would make a great movie Excellent story that bega for a sequel about a man and a balloon adventure and diamonda

William Penn DuBois was a wonderful illustrator and a delightful story teller. His upbeat tale of balloon flight and "steam punk" technology is peppered with lovely pictures and humour observations of the human condition. It's also an opportunity to discuss the world and geography with a young child as his trip is a circumnavigation in a "mere 40 days"! Jules Verne move over.

i ordered this book because i had read numerous accounts stating this was one of the best kids books ever. the edition i got is beautiful (four or five stars). it's lovely to behold. the story? well...i find it unnecessarily wordy. as a kid and now as an adult, i've never cared for a narration that elaborates just for the sake of adding words to the word count. in a way, this is a noisy book because of that and it makes the magic of the story harder to hear. some of the comical bits regarding the absurdity of various situations will likely be missed by younger kids. and there is no character that is fully developed that would make a kid want to latch onto that character. i bought 10 "best kids" books when i bought this book and so far it's not at the top of those 10 books. but still, i find the book somewhat captivating in that it really is a story that was told back in the 1940s and i like that. this book in the 1940s must have been really something. now? it's not quite passed the entire test of time.

I gave this delightful book to my grandson (age 13) for Christmas. I haven't heard any reviews from him (I gave him a stack of books), but it's a book I loved way back when. From this book, I plunged into Jules Verne novels, which are on my list for the future.

An excellent classic for late elementary or middle school. A fun, whimsical tale full of twists and turns that children will delight in.

I had never heard of this book until a member of the AARP Bulletin Board posted that they had found it available and bought it for their grandchildren. Amazon's reviews gave this book glowing praise, therefore, I bought it for my 13 year old grandson. When the book arrived I decided to read a few pages just to make sure it was something he might like. I never put the book down! I read the entire book, being careful not to bend the pages. Oh! what a delightful story. At 59 I was saying to myself, "Well, if he could do that, I wonder if this, or that could be done too?!?!" I knew then that this book was perfect for anyone, young or old. It's an easy to read book, and I'm only sorry I didn't order two, one for me, and one for my grandson!

Reminiscent of the adventure of Kon Tiki, spellbinding!! Was reading in conjunction with my granddaughter and am eager to share my thoughts with her.

I purchased for a friend who is in fourth grade. One of my favorite children’s books of all time. I’m 67 years old and I read this book in fourth grade. Just as delightful now as then.

Very good

A classic children's book! Great for the imagination, stemming art activities, science crafts, etc.

I must have read this as a child (over and over) just after it was published. I remembered it recently when I was thinking back to why I so enjoy finding ingenious answers to practical problems. So I bought another copy for myself (in my seventies) and sent one the 7-year-old grandson of a friend. I re-acquainted myself with hydraulic furniture while he is now deep into fake curly moustaches and tying paper baskets to supermarket balloons. For me this book was a solitary pleasure, but my friend finds it a wonderful "read-together" (and enact together) experience.

I made a request for two books. The books received in good condition and reasonable paper quality and suitable time

Super Buch zum Vorlesen für Kl. 4, Kl. 5 Gym.; spannend und informativ zugleich, Wortschatz nicht zu schwierig, nette Geschichte