The Balloon Sailors [Library Binding]

Diane Swanson (Author), Krystyna Lipka-Sztarballo (Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 5 and up | Grade Level: K and up

Based on true events from the time of the Berlin Wall.

When King Frack and King Frick divide their kingdom with a tall wall, Tamala and her brother send balloon messages over the wall to their beloved grandmother.

Then Tamala decides her family can reach their grandmother the same way: in a hot-air balloon! The family gathers all the materials they will need: cloth for the balloon, straw for the basket. But where to find a gas burner? With spies everywhere, their work is extremely perilous.

Nevertheless, Mother sews the material, Father weaves the basket, and Tamala and Abalon discover an old gas burner in a junkyard. After many nights of labor, their craft is ready and rises into the air. Guards on the wall spot them and fire their weapons, but the balloon sails safely over.

Happily, they successfully reach their destination, just as two families from East Berlin did in 1979! An endnote ties this story to the dramatic true event.

Key features:

• Based on a true escape over the Berlin Wall in 1979
• A captivating, page-turning suspense story
• Stunning, evocative illustrations

(20030919)

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 2-4--This story is set in a mythical kingdom that is divided in two by a stone wall. Desperate to see their relatives, a family decides to risk the overt and covert dangers and build a balloon that will lift them over the barrier. They secretly sew together pieces of cloth, weave a basket, and finally collect the parts for a gas burner. On a dark night, they bravely climb aboard, manage to avoid gunfire from guards, and eventually set down in Grandma's yard. A brief note on the last page explains how Berlin was suddenly divided in a similar manner. Rendered in watercolor with crayon and pencil, the illustrations feature subdued tones of brown and gray. The artwork successfully evokes fear, hope, and joy through the family's expressions and through the use of color. This simple, well-told tale will surely generate discussion and would be most effective in a classroom setting.--Linda M. Kenton, San Rafael Public Library, CA
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Review

This thrilling tale will have children holding their breaths in suspense... Excellent. (Krys Stefansky Virginian-Pilot 20040113)

The artwork successfully evokes fear, hope, and joy... simple, well-told tale. (Linda M. Kenton School Library Journal )

A testament to the creativity and determination of the human spirit. (Gail Hamilton Canadian Materials )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 5 and up
  
• Library Binding: 24 pages
• Publisher: Annick Press (September 6, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1550378090
• ISBN-13: 978-1550378092
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 8.7 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,553,635 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not so fantastical!, June 19, 2004

By 

E. S. Will "a new leaf" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Balloon Sailors (Library Binding)

This story seemed utterly fantastical to me-then I read that it was based on a true incident! (I know, I know -"Truth is often stranger than fiction.")
King Frick and King Frack have each inherited half the kingdom. They build a great stone wall that slices it in two. No one may cross the wall. Unfortunately it divides families from their relatives-in this story, little Tamala and Abalon and parents from Grandma and cousin Peter. The family sews together a huge balloon, attaching it to a basket outfitted with a gas burner.
One night they take off in their hot-air balloon, and sail over the wall, even while soldiers below attempt to shoot them down. They are reunited with their relatives.
The story is based on the wall constructed in 1961 to divide Berlin in two. In 1979, two East German families sewed a balloon four stories tall and sailed over the wall. (In 1989, the wall came down.)
"The Balloon Sailors" illustrates the bizarre circumstances that ideology and politics can visit upon citizens, and how some use great imagination and perseverance to overcome the barriers imposed upon them.
The heart-felt illustrations evoke folktales of old, depicting simple village folk and stereotypical kings.

5.0 out of 5 stars A beautiful, and surprising, book., July 23, 2011

By 

Diane Trimble (Illinois, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Balloon Sailors (Library Binding)

I agree wholeheartedly with the previous reviewer. This book has magical illustrations, suggesting peasant life in the middle ages. The color palette is warm and pleasing, even as the problem is being described: a village is being cut in half by a wall that separates families and interrupts the day-to-day workings of the community's life. Work, school, and worship are all affected: even the train is kept from reaching the train station!

The family laments the situation. The children put notes to their grandmother in a balloon and send it into the air in the hopes of reaching her. The children wish that they could sail away too. The family begins a plan to constuct a hot air balloon and sail over the wall. Their mother, and accomplished quilter, will stitch it all together. Everyone begins to collect materials---fabric for the balloon, and straw to construct a basket. The resourceful children even sift through the trash until they find a gas burner. They all work together, wait for just the right wind, take off in darkness, and are ultimately reunited with family.

Readers may feel they are being asked to imagine something quite impossible. Just then the author says that although this story is make-believe, just such a successful journey was undertaken by two families crossing the Berlin Wall in a four story balloon 1979!

One caveat: there is mention of spies who keep people from trying to cross, and being "tossed into jail". Also during the escape "soldiers below fire their guns at the basket....and the children crouch down...". This seems like a book for children old enough to have everything explained to them---about freedom and oppression, etc. so the adult should be ready with more information.

I LOVED this book. My generation lived through both the building and the dismantling of the Berlin Wall, so perhaps it strikes a special chord. (For adults I must recommend the film: "The Lives of Others" for more background on this topic. It has a wonderful ending.)