William Pène du Bois (1916–1993)

What's really rare about this is it's a children's book where the hero is an adult and we never really see things from a child's perspective. It made its point (adventure!) and ended abruptly. I really liked the illustrations and I appreciated how businesslike the telling of the story was. It makes me wish there were more stories like this for kids. What's the opposite of condescending? Respectful, I guess. It's just a solid tale.

Now that I think about it, I guess a lot of comic books don't have child characters. Like Batman and Spider Man. But would I compare this book to a comic? No way. It's about an old math professor who wants to sail away in a balloon and ends up landing on an island that explodes. But I still think it's interesting to try to think of books for kids that don't have kids as the main characters.… (mere)