The Twenty-One Balloons
Acceptable. Age: 9+. A Catholic review of this book for parents.
Our review
A retired teacher sets off in a giant balloon to float for a year. A seagull pokes a hole in it, and he lands on the island of Krakatoa. There he finds twenty families with a secret diamond mine, and when the volcano erupts, they all escape with the help of twenty balloons. It is an inventive, harmless adventure. Age 9, set by Lumen's own independent-reading age; no Common Sense Media page or publisher age was found.
For parents
Age 9, set by Lumen's independent-reading age. No Common Sense Media page or publisher age could be fetched; the Cardinal Newman Society lists it for grades 5-8. Read it aloud from 7. Nothing needs correcting. Ask your child which of the families' inventions was most clever, and why the families chose to keep their secret.