The Silver Balloon

by Susan Bonners

Book Overview

Having a pen pal is exciting

One September evening, Gregory ties an index card with his name and address on it to the string of a silver helium balloon and lets it go from his window, into the city sky. Three weeks later, an envelope arrives in the mail. A farmer named Pete has found his balloon Gregory writes back, and the two become pen pals, exchanging mystery gifts with each letter. Finally, Pete sends a gift that Gregory can...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0374466475
• ISBN13: 9780374466473
• Release Date: September 1999
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Byr)
• Length: 80 Pages
• Weight: 0.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 5.2" x 7.6"
• Age Range: 7 to 9 years
• Grade Range: Grades 2 to 4

Customer Reviews

Good Book

I liked the way that Gregory got his pen pal.I also liked the Mystery Gifts.

The Silver Balloon

This is a really great book about a boy named Gregory and a wheat farmer named Pete Mayfield. Gregory lives in the city with newspapers flying around the sidewalks, buses with bus tokens, and streets with manhole covers. Mr. Mayfield lives in the woods with rivers where he goes fishing and camping.One day Gregory decided to write his name and address on a silver balloon. The balloon floated away to another place where Mr. Mayfield found it. Mr. Mayfield sent a letter back to Gregory along with a piece of wheat. Gregory has to figure out what it is. After that, they start sending mystery gifts to each other. My favorite mystery gift is the Saber Tooth tiger's canine tooth. I loved guessing what the gifts were. I learned so many things in this book like you can find arrowheads and tiger's teeth in the middle of wheat fields. That shows that ancient animals and Plains Indians once lived there!

Bonners' Balloon Flies High

The Silver Balloon is a quick read, but what a great read. I never expected the pen pals to become detectives along the way. Ms. Bonners has a strong sense of what kids are like and it is so nice to see a book that young boys will enjoy. We need more like this one!

A GREAT BOOK!

Is starts out with this boy sending a silver ballon to sail to find a pen pal.This was a great book about these two pen pals sending each other gifts. Trying to figure out what they are and soon become very good friends at the end. It ends up with a surprise ending at the end of the book.

This is the only book I ever read that made me cry!

I am 9 years old and my mom brought this book home from the NCTE Convention. I read it in a couple hours. I love this book. I was so happy at the end that I cried, and I cry everytime I think about it. I want to read more of Susan Bonner's books.