Help finding a children's book

Ed Selley · 14-12-2008, 9:16 PM

Right- its time to ask the Geek engine.

When I was a kid, my friend next door had a children's book that featured a balloon trip by some children and their uncle (it was a more innocent age) around the world. The balloon was huge and the "basket" was actually a wicker house. The children had ingested some sort of powder that allowed them to communcate with animals. The book was big and beautifully illustrated and I'd love to buy a copy. Years of booze and other things mean I can't remember what it was called or who wrote it.

Any ideas?

PoochJD · 14-12-2008, 10:53 PM

HI Ed,

It sounds like it might be... (drum-roll, please)

The Twenty-One Balloons
by Professor William Pene du Bois

Published by Puffin Modern Classics (Paperback)
192 pages
ISBN No: 13-978-014-2-40330-3

Still published and available from Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com, or most decent bookshops on the high street.

Pooch

Ed Selley · 14-12-2008, 11:22 PM

Alas not- I know it to be a good book though.

This book is an oddity (and alas I fear a rare one). The children are British and the writing suggested that in the 1980's it wasn't that old. There is just one (very big) balloon. The locations visited are real- the Serengeti, Antarctica etc. The Balloon might have been called Bellona (sp?).

The book itself was big for a kids book- hardback, with illustrations throughout. It almost certainly was horribly expensive which probably makes it rare.