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Common Knowledge

Canonical name: Pène du Bois, William
Legal name: Pène du Bois, William Sherman
Birthdate: 1916-05-09
Date of death: 1993-02-05
Gender: male
Education: Lycée Hoche, Versailles, France
Lycée de Nice
Occupations: children's book author
journalist
illustrator
Organizations: Paris Review (founding editor)
U.S. Army
Relationships: Tomes, Margot (cousin)
Pène du Bois, Guy (father)
Pène du Bois, Raoul (cousin)
Kim, Willa (wife)
Short biography: [excerpted from Wikipedia]
William Sherman Pène du Bois (May 9, 1916 – February 5, 1993) was born in Nutley, New Jersey. When William was eight the family moved to France, where he was educated at the Lycée Hoche in Versailles and the Lycée de Nice in Nice. They returned to Nutley when he was 14. After high school he was accepted by the Carnegie Technical School of Architecture, and offered a scholarship, but he sold a book that he had written and illustrated to pass the time during a vacation and pursued the creation of books rather than college.

By the time he entered the army in March 1941 at age 24, he had written and illustrated five more books. He spent his years in the army (1941–1945) with an artillery unit stationed in Bermuda. He worked as a correspondent for Yank magazine. He also edited the camp newspaper and illustrated strategic maps. In addition to writing and illustrating his own books, Pène du Bois illustrated books written by Jules Verne, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Rumer Godden, Claire Huchet Bishop and John Steinbeck, as well as magazine articles and advertisements. He was one of the founding editors of The Paris Review.

The highlight of his career was winning the Newbery Medal in 1948 for The Twenty-One Balloons. As an illustrator he was a runner-up for the companion Caldecott Medal in 1952 for Bear Party and in 1957 for Lion.
Cause of death: stroke
Nationality: USA
France
Birthplace: Nutley, New Jersey, USA
Place of death: Nice, Alpes-Maritimes, France
Map Location: New Jersey, USA

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Found: Children's book: hot air balloon stranded on island with gold in Name that Book (April 2021)

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98 reviews

cbl_tn 2,106 reviews

The twenty-one balloons by William Pène du Bois

At the end of a forty year career teaching math at a San Francisco boys' school, professor William Waterman Sherman looks forward to a year of solitude traveling the world in a hot air balloon that he's built for the purpose. He sets out over the Pacific Ocean on August 15, 1883, only to be found weeks later barely alive and floating in the Atlantic Ocean. How did he get there? Professor Sherman will tell his story...but only after San Francisco's Western American Explorers' Club members show more have heard it. The nation waits with great anticipation as the professor convalesces and then makes his way across the continent to San Francisco, where he is greeted by a great crowd. He has an amazing story to tell the Explorers' Club of an unusual society on an island believed to have been uninhabited. Professor Sherman arrived there just in time to experience one of the world's greatest disasters.

This imaginative story of a Victorian society living on top of a volcano was a delightful diversion at a time when I lacked the concentration for anything but lighthearted and/or comfort reads. I loved the creative details and the author's illustrations, but the delivery lacks sparkle. Most of the book is supposed to be a speech delivered in the style of a Victorian orator. I'm not sure how many of today's young people in the book's target age group would have enough patience with the style to finish the book, but it's one that I could see my brother and his friends enjoying in their upper elementary and middle school years. (My brother and his best friends all went on to earn engineering degrees.) Potential readers should be aware that the book includes a few racial terms and stereotypes that are often found in older works but are generally considered offensive by today's standards. show less

May 16, 201573 other reviews

fingerpost 879 reviews

The Twenty-One Balloons by du Bois William Pene (1986-05-06) Paperback by William Pène du Bois

I'm going to be the renegade who disagrees with everyone else.
The first chapter or two were promising. A well written, somewhat humorous tale of a man discovered lost at sea in an inexplicable manner, who then refuses to say a word about how he came to be there until he was before his explorers club in San Francisco.
But once Professon Sherman actually begins telling of his adventure, the story plummets downhill at break-neck speed. Every single aspect of his adventure on Krakatoa is show more preposterous to the degree that my eye-balls hurt from rolling them so far back in their sockets. The idea that 20 families with children would just up and move to an uninhabited volcanic island... the restaurant based government... the endless, tediously explained, absurd inventions... the idiocy of all inhabitants renaming themselves to be letters of the alphabet (the children with numbers added)... the ground that moves about like ocean waves... on and on.
Once the professor begins explaining his adventure, the entire book is a non-stop stream of nonsense.
I have no issue with magic, or silliness, or wacky inventions... but they need to make sense within the rules of the world in which they are set. The Harry Potter universe allows for endless magic (but always with rules), the Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang or Willy Wonka universes allow for crazy inventions. But The Twenty-One Balloons seems to establish itself firmly in the real world, or very close to it, of it's time period, which meant nothing on the island of Krakatoa, socially or technologically, made any sense whatsoever.
That this book won a Newbery award is mind-boggling to me. show less

Aug 19, 201773 other reviews

juliette07 65 reviews

The Twenty-One Balloons by William Pène du Bois

‘There are two kinds of travel’….. So begins this 1948 Newbery award winner, a brilliant book ranging from scientific truths to absolute fantasy. At first I thought the mingling of fact and fiction would disappoint me. To the contrary I was completely enthralled and really involved in the adventure. Black and white illustrations complemented the text and explained further some of the inventions. Underneath all the fantasy was a depth and a number of truths regarding ‘teamship’ and show more questions regarding riches. Excellent writing and highly recommended.

A footnote – at first I was captivated as I too have flown in hot air balloons. This has been with a friend, an amateur in the Pyrennees along with my husband, not to mention my then 87 year old mum and friend! It is the most magical and wonderful form of transport. I have already recommended this to Dave and his family, especially Chloe whose childhood took her round the Pyrenean countryside as her mum followed their beautiful balloon named One World Dreaming. show less

Oct 29, 200773 other reviews

Cheryl_in_CC_NV 15,288 reviews

Bear Circus (The Bears of Koala Park) by William Pène Du Bois

As the back flap admits, this is basically a vehicle for adorable art. Who doesn't like pretty pictures of koalas performing a circus? I would have loved this passionately when I was a child and may even have overlooked the story about friendship and perseverance. I guess I'm awfully jaded now, because I just can't bear to give it the fourth star....

Oct 18, 20241 other review

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