Customer Reviews

The Amazing Air Balloon (Phyllis Fogelman Books)

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The Amazing Air Balloon is a fictional story based on true events. The book tells the story of Edward Warren, a 13-year-old boy who was the first person in America to ride in a hot air balloon. The story is told from Edward's perspective, focusing on his life as an orphan and blacksmith's apprentice, and his dream to fly. Peter Carnes, a tavern proprietor, had built many air balloons and sent them up for test flights, but he had not built up the courage to try flying in one himself. He planned to exhibit the balloon in Baltimore on June 24, 1784, but when the day came, he feared that the balloon would not hold his weight. Edward volunteered and made history. The book contains an author's note describing the hot air balloon craze that began soon after the American Revolution. The author also explains that all that is known about Edward is his name and age, and that she had to imagine the rest of the details of the story.

I would recommend this book for ages 6 through 9. Children in this age group are beginning to develop expanding interests and will enjoy learning the story of hot air balloons. They are also beginning to develop independence, and will be inspired by the initiative and heroism shown by Edward. This book will also give children developing an understanding of time concepts a feeling of what life was like in 18th Century America. I would use this book in a school setting with students learning about this time period. It would also be appropriate to use with children studying aviation history. The oil paintings in the book highlight the events in the book as they occur. The realistic paintings of the characters and land accurately reflect the setting. In addition, the book's endpapers feature two newspaper articles written in 1874 about the actual events.

The Amazing Air Balloon by Jean Van Leeuwen is a remarkable and true story about aviation history set back in 1784 colonial America, when for the first time a hot air balloon was flown with a human passenger, -- who happened to be a thirteen-year-old boy. Evocative oil paintings by Marco Ventura showcase the narration to mark The Amazing Air Balloon as a truly wonderful picture book account of ambition and dreams come true.

This is a wonderful fictional tale based on historical facts about the first American, a thirteen year old boy, to go up in a balloon with actual copies of newspaper clippings. One article was written by Benjamin Franklin!

The story is well done and the history well researched, including some quotes by men in our history, but here is an example of the grammar (these are the beginning of the paragraphs):

"We will see, gentlemen," he said. And he built another balloon.

But that could not be. I was bound to earth. Bound to the hard labor of a blacksmith's apprentice until I was twenty-one....

Only a few days remained before the exhibition. Mr. Carnes planned one last test flight. And this time, everyone said, he would go up with it.

But the hoop that surrounded the balloon was broken.

More than anything, I longed to go to Baltimore for his exhibition. But that was thirty miles away. And I was not free to go....

I am truly surprised and saddened that reviewers overlook the grammar! From my experience, children reading stories written with poor grammar will learn to write with poor grammar.