1948 - The Twenty-One Balloons

Dates read: May 2008
Read or listened to: Listened to
Pages: 192 pp.
Rating: ●●●●●

I loved this book. I laughed out loud in parts! Professor Sherman's experiences are so fantastical and whimsical that the reader (or listener) can certainly enter a new world and experience an island only imagined! This book is best experienced as a read aloud and I will definitely look forward to reading it aloud to my children.

Basic synopsis: Professor William Waterton Sherman, in an effort to escape his life as an arithmetic teacher in 1883 San Francisco, sets off on a balloon trip of an indefinite length of time. He crashes into the island of Krakatoa which has been secretly settled by 20 families who live off of the diamond mines found on the island. He is settling into his new life as a Krakatoan when the very active volcano erupts. The book starts when he is mysteriously found floating in the Atlantic Ocean and the book proceeds as he retells his experiences.