The Twenty-One Balloons by William Pène du Bois

From Goodreads,

"A Newbery Medal Winner

Professor William Waterman Sherman intends to fly across the Pacific Ocean. But through a twist of fate, he lands on Krakatoa, and discovers a world of unimaginable wealth, eccentric inhabitants, and incredible balloon inventions.Winner of the 1948 Newbery Medal, this classic fantasy-adventure is now available in a handsome new edition.

"William Pene du Bois combines his rich imagination, scientific tastes, and brilliant artistry to tell a story that has no age limit."—The Horn Book" 

 Goodreads - The Twenty-One Balloons

Can you imagine dropping everything in life to go on a year long adventure?  Maybe your adventure would be to travel for a year and let life decide your direction.  Or maybe your adventure would be to accomplish as many things on your bucket list before you actually kick the bucket.  I would love to drop everything for a year and travel by whatever means necessary.  This book explores the adventure of packing up and leaving life behind to travel in a hot air balloon.

This book was written in 1947 (yes, I know the book is "old") and it won the Newberry Medal in 1948.  This book has a lot of suspense and adventure in it.  It was a fairly easy read with fairly simple vocabulary.  It follows the story of Professor William Waterman Sherman who has decided to take a year off from teaching to go on an adventure in a hot air balloon.  The story takes an unexpected twist when he crashes near the island of Krakatoa.  He soon finds out that people inhabit the island and that the island has an abundance of diamonds.  The Krakatoans have a very unique way of handling life on the island that makes sense for them.  The story continues and the reader finally discovers what happened.

I really tried to read this book as a normal 23 year old and not as a teacher, but that didn't happen.  There is so much that can be done with this in a classroom.  The Krakatoans have a unique form of government and I think it would be perfect for the students to practice this form of government to see how effective it really is.  You could incorporate science by discussing the dynamics of a hot air balloon.  The students could use STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) by creating their own hot air balloon out of a series of given materials.  The students could incorporate math by determining how much their hot air balloon could hold and how much it would hold if it were ten or a hundred times bigger.

Whoa...I'm so sorry I just turned into a teacher for a few minutes there.  I get so excited about books and finding ways to incorporate them in the classroom!!

Overall this was a good book.  It had a lot of adventure and kept me on the edge of my seat because I wanted to know the true story of Professor William Waterman Sherman.  I give this book a solid 4 out of 5 stars.  This isn't a book I would typically read, but sometimes it is good to branch out and read something old or out of your typical genre.  A change of pace is good... it can sometimes take you on an exciting adventure.