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William Pène du Bois (1916 to 1993) was an American writer and illustrator of books for young readers. He was born in America but moved to France with his family when he was eight years old, returning to America when he turned 14. This stay in France can be seen in many of his books, which either have a French “feel” to them or are actually set in France. He almost went to college but successfully published a book, so he decided to pursue writing and illustration on his own. Du Bois honorably served in the US Army during World War II and then went on to become a very successful author and illustrator. All of his books were illustrated by him – their whimsical pictures add greatly to the charm of his stories. He also illustrated the books of many other famous writers, including Jules Verne, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Rumer Godden, Claire Huchet Bishop. and John Steinbeck. William Pene du Bois fills his books with his creative ingenuity and delightful imagination, which are both a little different from the rest of us. By this I mean that his ideas are not what you and I might make up in an inventive moment or two – du Bois truly comes up with plots and characters that are unusual yet totally satisfying.
Du Bois’ illustrations for the novels of Jules Verne seems to have had an influence on him, at least for the three books reviewed here. These three books, Peter Graves, The Giant, and The 21 Balloons all can be classified as Jules Verne-style adventures, set in the modern-day but light-hearted, with a bit of whimsical technology and science fiction delightfully mixed in. These books remind me, in their own unique ways, of Around the World in Eighty Days, the most humorous of Verne’s works. All three books can be enjoyed at the middle school reading level, though there are depth and wit in them that can be appreciated by high schoolers and above.
The book Peter Graves has the subtitle: An Extraordinary Adventure, and it truly is. This story, full of sly jokes and clever word plays and interesting inventions, was published in 1950. Those readers who really like the Henry Reed and Alvin Fernald books will also like this book. An anti-gravity alloy, Furloy, which was invented by Houghton Furlong, who looks like a mad scientist but isn’t, drives the story. The main idea of the book is that an accidental destruction of Mr. Furlong’s house (by Peter) impels Peter and Houghton to look for ways to make money using Furloy in order to rebuild the house. The arch-villain, which is a necessity for such a story, is a man named Llewelyn Pierpont Boopfaddle, a leather suitcase manufacturer. With names like these, what more needs to be said? Peter Graves is a delightful, joyous, and often humorous story with lovely illustrations - by the author, of course. In some ways, this story, which came before the old Disney movie The Absent-Minded Professor, reminds me of this delightful movie.
The Giant is another good example of the author’s way of thinking that is a little different from us ordinary types. In fairy tales and other stories for centuries, giants have been characters that are almost always evil or at least brutish or both. Du Bois imagines a young boy, born in Argentina to wealthy parents, who grows remarkably so that he is about 70 feet tall before he is nine years old! A syndicate of friends takes care of him and calls him El Muchacho. Rather than being evil or brutish, he is a nice young boy who plays Noah’s Ark with real animals, including elephants and lions, and who plays trucks with full-sized equipment! William Pene du Bois tells the story in the first person as he makes himself a main character and narrator. This is a quirky story, full of sly jokes, yet it is quite tender towards the boy himself, with a happy ending. Your imagination will be challenged when reading this book, which is a good thing – challenging one’s imagination, I mean. That is a good way to make one’s imagination grow.
The 21 Balloons won the 1948 Newbery Award for best juvenile novel. That was a time when winning the Newbery Award really meant that a book was outstanding and worth reading. The 21 Balloons, set in 1883, is no exception. How to describe this book? At one level, it is an adventure story involving an intrepid balloonist, Professor William Waterman Sherman. However, he is not really an adventurer but is a math teacher for 11 to 15 year-old children, who wants to get away in a balloon, by himself, for a year because he greatly desires peace and quiet! Leaving from San Francisco, he ends up being blown to the island of Krakatoa (the famous one that blew up in 1883, hint, hint). There he discovers a doomed but spectacular society, founded on great wealth, with unusual but quite civilized rules and technology and full of humor and kindness. Du Bois’ incredible illustrations are a key part of telling this marvelous story.