- delightfully unique story about a retired teacher who wants to live in a flying balloon
- a crash landing on a supposedly uninhabited island brings all sorts of surprises
- language: x1 stupid, x1 Good L*rd
- convo: alcoholic drinks mentioned, luck mentioned, mentions feeling drunk (he wasn’t), lying, cleavage in one illustration, a negro clown mentioned
- superb illustrations done by author
Type: chapter book
Ages: 7-12
Author: William Pène du Bois
This was one of those books that I’d heard about for ages but had never read till recently. Wow, did it surprise me! It was amusing and light-hearted, and I can’t imagine any child not liking it. It sure could spark fun conversations. What if this was your island and you had endless money? What would you invent? What would your house look like? What activities would you do for fun? And so on.
On the flip side, it could kindle a more serious discussion on wealth–the more we have, the more we can become enslaved to it. How should we, as Christians, steward what God gives us?
As you can imagine with a book published in 1947, there will be a variety of vocabulary words new to the reader. Context gives great clues to most of them, however, and your child will be richer in words when he finishes.
The main thing that might fly over the heads of younger readers is the brief section on economics–particularly how the more the world has of a certain resource, the lower it is valued. Don’t allow that to convince you the book is boring by any means! It’s immensely enjoyable and would be a great “break” between heavier reads.
Oh, and I don’t recommend listening to an audiobook version, because the drawings were very helpful in understanding certain descriptions. They were so fun to study. Let me know if you read this!