Books like 'The Twenty-One Balloons'
Readers who enjoyed The Twenty-One Balloons by William Pène du Bois also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical fantasy action / adventure 20th century mystery classics historical-fiction children humor steampunk
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Boy's Life by Robert McCammon
Rated: 4.39 of 5 stars · 42 ratingsAn Alabama boy’s innocence is shaken by murder and madness in the 1960s South in this novel by the New York Times–bestselling author of Swan Song. It’s 1964 in idyllic Zephyr, Alabama. People either work for the paper mill up the Tecumseh River, or for the local dairy. It’s a simple life, but it stirs the impressionable imagination of twelve-year-old aspiring writer Cory Mackenson...Categorized as:
children classics family historical-fiction 20th-century action-adventure alabama audiobook -
Echo by Pam Muñoz Ryan
Rated: 4.32 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsAn impassioned, uplifting, and virtuosic tour de force from a treasured storyteller!Lost and alone in a forbidden forest, Otto meets three mysterious sisters and suddenly finds himself entwined in a puzzling quest involving a prophecy, a promise, and a harmonica...Categorized as:
children family historical-fiction realistic 20th-century action-adventure audiobook book -
Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
Rated: 4.26 of 5 stars · 80 ratingsAn alternative cover for this ISBN can be found hereSophie has the great misfortune of being the eldest of three daughters, destined to fail miserably should she ever leave home to seek her fate. But when she unwittingly attracts the ire of the Witch of the Waste, Sophie finds herself under a horrid spell that transforms her into an old lady...Categorized as:
children classics humor industrial-era steampunk family 20th-century action-adventure -
Warbound by Larry Correia
Rated: 4.41 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsNew York Times and Wall Street Journal best-selling author's gritty urban fantasy set in an alternate noir 1930s. A tough P.I. battles an interdimensional monster that wants to suck magic power out of the world. Sequel to Hard Magic and Spellbound. Book Three in the Grimnoir Chronicles...Categorized as:
historical-fiction humor industrial-era steampunk 20th-century action-adventure adult aliens -
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Searching for Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 48 ratingsKidnap a dragon? How daring!How stupidCimorene, the princess who refuses to be proper, is back--but where is Kazul the dragon? That's what Cimorene is determined to find out. Luckily--or perhaps not-so-luckily--she's got help: Mendenbar, the not-very-kingly King of the Enchanted Forest, has joined her in her quest... -
The Magic Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsJo, Bessie and Fanny take their cousin Rick on an adventure he'll never forget to the magic Faraway Tree, where he meets Moon-Face, Silky the fairy and Saucepan Man, and visits all the different lands at the top of the Faraway Tree...Categorized as:
children classics family 20th-century action-adventure audiobook book children-books -
Charlock's Secret by Leah Moyes
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsDesperate to hide, Kat flees. Trapped in time, her survival and return are threatened by her tortured heart.Ensnared by hopelessness and grief, 24-year-old Kat Shelton, accepts a position as the curator of an old English estate with the sole purpose of running away from her memories and to bury life’s pain... -
Here Be Dragons by Sharon Kay Penman
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 39 ratingsThirteenth-century Wales is a divided country, ever at the mercy of England's ruthless, power-hungry King John. Then Llewelyn, Prince of North Wales, secures an uneasy truce with England by marrying the English king's beloved, illegitimate daughter, Joanna. Reluctant to wed her father's bitter enemy, Joanna slowly grows to love her charismatic and courageous husband who dreams of uniting Wales...Categorized as:
classics family historical-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult book british-isles -
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars · 89 ratingsIn this beloved story, readers travel with Mary Lennox, a spoiled and sullen orphan, from colonial India to Misselthwaite Manor, a forbidding estate on the Yorkshire moors. There, in the unlikeliest of places, Mary discovers and helps restore an abandoned garden and, in the process, blossoms herself into a creature of loving kindness...Categorized as:
children classics family historical-fiction industrial-era outdoors realistic 20th-century -
The Valley of Lost Secrets by Lesley Parr
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsSeptember 1939.When Jimmy is evacuated to a small village in Wales, it couldn't be more different from London. Green, quiet and full of strangers, he instantly feels out of place.But then he finds a skull hidden in a tree, and suddenly the valley is more frightening than the war. Who can Jimmy trust? His brother is too little; his best friend has changed...Categorized as:
children family historical-fiction outdoors 20th-century action-adventure book british-isles -
A Prince Without a Kingdom by Timothée de Fombelle
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThis was the only treasure that Vango was after: the secret of his life.Vango has been in danger for as long as he can remember. He has spent his life running along rooftops, fleeing to mysterious islands, and abandoning those he loves in order to protect them from the demons of his past. But Vango will not run for much longer...Categorized as:
children family historical-fiction 20th-century 21st-century action-adventure book coming-of-age -
Journey to the River Sea by Eva Ibbotson
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsSent in 1910 to live with distant relatives who own a rubber plantation along the Amazon River, English orphan Maia is excited. She believes she is in for brightly colored macaws, enormous butterflies, and "curtains of sweetly scented orchids trailing from the trees." Her British classmates warn her of man-eating alligators and wild, murderous Indians...Categorized as:
children classics family historical-fiction outdoors realistic 20th-century 21st-century -
The Enchanted Wood by Enid Blyton
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsJo, Bessie and Fanny move to the country and find an Enchanted Wood right on their doorstep. In the magic Faraway Tree live the magical characters that soon become their new friends – Moon-Face, Silky the fairy, and Saucepan Man... -
The Long Chain by Dan Willis
Rated: 4.51 of 5 stars · 13 ratingsWhen New York is blanketed in an unnatural fog, Private Detective Alex Lockerby finds himself on the trail of a missing scientist, a stolen military secret, and a merciless killer leaving a trail of bodies in their wake.In a city the size of New York, things go missing all the time. When a Nobel-Prize winning Chemist vanishes without a trace, his granddaughter taps Alex to find him...Categorized as:
historical-fiction industrial-era steampunk 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook book -
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The Prisoner of Heaven by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 40 ratingsBarcelona, 1957. It is Christmas, and Daniel Sempere and his wife Bea have much to celebrate. They have a beautiful new baby son named Julian, and their close friend Fermín Romero de Torres is about to be wed. But their joy is eclipsed when a mysterious stranger visits the Sempere bookshop and threatens to divulge a terrible secret that has been buried for two decades in the city's dark past...Categorized as:
classics family historical-fiction 20th-century 21st-century action-adventure audiobook book -
The Secrets of the Wild Wood by Tonke Dragt
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsA stunning gift edition of the thrilling Sunday Times and Telegraph Book of the Year, the sequel to The Letter for the King.One of the King's most trusted knights has vanished in the snow, so young Sir Tiuri and his best friend Piak must journey into the shadowy heart of the forest to find him. The Wild Wood is a place of mysteries, rumours and whispered tales...Categorized as:
children classics historical-fiction 20th-century action-adventure audiobook book female-author -
Manalive by G.K. Chesterton
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsPerhaps the most light-hearted of all Chesterton's "serious" works, Manalive pits a group of disillusioned young people against Mr. Innocent Smith, a bubbly, high-spirited gentleman who literally falls into their midst. Later accused of murder and denounced for philandering everywhere he goes, Smith prompts his newfound acquaintances to recognize an important idea in most unexpected ways...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction humor 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook book -
Redwall by Brian Jacques
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 66 ratingsA quest to recover a legendary lost weapon by bumbling young apprentice monk, mouse Matthias. Redwall Abbey, tranquil home to a community of peace-loving mice, is threatened by Cluny the Scourge savage bilge rat warlord and his battle-hardened horde. But the Redwall mice and their loyal woodland friends combine their courage and strength...Categorized as:
children classics historical-fiction humor 20th-century action-adventure animals anthropomorphism -
The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 89 ratingsLost in a new world, Lyra finds Will—a boy on the run, a murderer—a worthy and welcome ally. For this is a world where soul-eating Specters stalk the streets and witches share the skies with troops of angels.Each is searching—Lyra for the meaning of Dark Matter, Will for his missing father—but what they find instead is a deadly secret, a knife of untold power... -
Pawn of Prophecy by David Eddings
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 69 ratingsA magnificent epic set against a history of seven thousand years of the struggles of Gods and Kings and men - of strange lands and events - of fate and a prophecy that must be fulfilled! THE BELGARIADLong ago, so the Storyteller claimed, the evil God Torak sought dominion and drove men and Gods to war. But Belgarath the Sorcerer led men to reclaim the Orb that protected men of the West... -
The Changeling by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsIvy Carson belonged to the notorious Carson family, which lived in a run-down house in suburban Rosewood. But Ivy was not a typical Carson. There was something wonderful about her. Ivy explained it by saying that she was a changeling, a child of supernatural parents who had been exchanged for the real Ivy Carson at birth. This classic book was first published in 1970...Categorized as:
children classics family realistic 20th-century action-adventure book children-books -
The Amazing Mr Blunden by Antonia Barber
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIt was such an old house it sometimes seemed to Lucy that all the past was gathered up inside it as if in a great box; as though it had a life of its own that continued to exist just beyond the reach of her eyes and ears...Categorized as:
children classics historical-fiction 20th-century action-adventure book children-books fiction -
Marianne Dreams by Catherine Storr
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsIll and bored with having to stay in bed, Marianne picks up a pencil and starts doodling - a house, a garden, a boy at the window. That night she has an extraordinary dream. She is transported into her own picture, and as she explores further she soon realises she is not alone...Categorized as:
children classics 20th-century action-adventure book children-books coming-of-age fiction -
Linnets and Valerians by Elizabeth Goudge
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe four Linnet children: Nan, Robert, Timothy and Betsy are sent to live with their strict grandmother while their father travels to Egypt. Locked away in separate rooms as punishment by their ruthless grandmother, the Linnets feel at once that their new life is unbearable—and decide to make their escape—out of the house, out of the garden and into the village...Categorized as:
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The Story of the Stone by Barry Hughart
Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars · 17 ratingsIn the valley of Sorrows, a monk is brutally murdered for a worthless manuscript, and the abbot of the humble monastery calls upon Master Li and Number Ten Ox to investigate the seemingly senseless killing. The most likely suspect is the infamous Laughing Prince, founder of the valley, whose murderous frenzies have made him a legend... -
Mossflower by Brian Jacques
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 53 ratingsThe thrilling prequel to "Redwall". The clever and greedy wildcat Tsarmina becomes ruler of all Mossflower Woods and is determined to govern the peaceful woodlanders with an iron paw. The brave mouse Martin and quick-talking mouse thief Gonff meet in the depths of Kotir Castle's dungeon. The two escape and resolve to end Tsarmina's tyrannical rule...Categorized as:
children classics humor 20th-century action-adventure animals anthropomorphism audiobook -
Black Hearts in Battersea by Joan Aiken
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsSimon, the foundling from The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, arrives in London to meet an old friend and pursue the study of painting. Instead he finds himself unwittingly in the middle of a wicked crew's fiendish caper to overthrow the good King James and the Duke and Duchess of Battersea...Categorized as:
children classics historical-fiction humor 20th-century action-adventure alternate-history book -
Tonight on the Titanic by Mary Pope Osborne
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsJack and Annie are in for an exciting, scary, and sad adventure when the Magic Tree House whisks them back to the decks of the "Titanic...Categorized as:
children family historical-fiction 20th-century action-adventure animals audiobook book -
Hard Magic by Larry Correia
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsJake Sullivan is a licensed Private Eye—with a seriously hardboiled attitude. He also possesses raw magical talent and the ability to make objects in his vicinity light as a feather or as heavy as depleted uranium, all with a magical thought. It's no wonder the G-men turn to Jake when they need someone to go after a suspected killer who's been knocking off banks in a magic-enhanced crime spree... -
A Swiftly Tilting Planet by Madeleine L'Engle
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 67 ratingsIn this companion volume to A Wrinkle In Time (Newbery Award winner) and A Wind In The Door fifteen-year-old Charles Wallace and the unicorn Gaudior undertake a perilous journey through time in a desperate attempt to stop the destruction of the world by the mad dictator Madog Branzillo. They are not alone in their quest...Categorized as:
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To The Bright Edge of the World by Eowyn Ivey
Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsSet again in the Alaskan landscape that she brought to stunningly vivid life in The Snow Child, Eowyn Ivey's second novel is a breathtaking story of discovery and adventure, set at the end of the nineteenth century, and of a marriage tested by a closely held secret...Categorized as:
family historical-fiction industrial-era outdoors 20th-century 21st-century action-adventure adult -
Max in the Land of Lies: A Tale of World War II by Adam Gidwitz
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsMax Bretzfeld's dangerous mission begins when he returns home to Berlin as a British spy in the much-anticipated second book in Adam Gidwitz's duology that began with Max in the House of Spies.Max was on a mission. Well, two missions. One mission his British spymasters knew about: infiltrating the Funkhaus, the center of Nazi radio and propaganda. The other, they did not: finding his parents... -
His Improper Lady by Candace Camp
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsSome family secrets were never meant to be disturbed. It’s been a year since Tom Quick became a partner at the detective agency Moreland & Quick, which he operates with his lifelong friend Constantine Moreland. When he catches an intruder breaking in to the agency, obviously looking for something, it’s clear that a new case is afoot... -
The Case of the One-Eyed Killer Stud Horse by John R. Erickson
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsWhen it comes to dealing with Tuerto, the one-eyed stud horse from the next ranch over, Hank's usual approach is not to approach him at all. But when Tuerto breaks loose and charges Little Alfred and his cousins, it's up to Hank to save them. USA Today calls the hilarious Hank the Cowdog series "...the best family entertainment in years... -
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Nightbirds on Nantucket by Joan Aiken
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsHaving had enough of life on board the ship that saved her from a watery grave, Dido Twite wants nothing more than to sail home to England. Instead, Captain Casket's ship lands in Nantucket, where Dido and the captain's daughter, Dutiful Penitence, are left in the care of Dutiful's sinister Aunt Tribulation. In Tribulation's farmhouse, life is unbearable...Categorized as:
children classics historical-fiction humor 20th-century action-adventure alternate-history book -
The Chimneys of Green Knowe by Lucy M. Boston
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsLucy Maria Boston's thrilling and classic time fantasy tales of Green Knowe, an ancient English manor house and its grounds whose setting was based on her own long-time home of The Manor at Hemingford Grey, have been entertaining readers of all ages for decades.This book was renamed Treasure of Green Knowe for the American reading market...Categorized as:
children classics historical-fiction 20th-century action-adventure audiobook book children-books -
The Sherwood Ring by Elizabeth Marie Pope
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsNewly orphaned Peggy Grahame is caught off-guard when she first arrives at her family's ancestral estate. Her eccentric uncle Enos drives away her only new acquaintance, Pat, a handsome British scholar, then leaves Peggy to fend for herself. But she is not alone. The house is full of mysteries and ghosts...Categorized as:
children classics family historical-fiction humor industrial-era 20th-century action-adventure -
The Adventures Of The Wishing-Chair by Enid Blyton
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsFree Delivery if order value from the seller is greater than 399. Used Book in good condition. No missing/ torn pages. No stains. Note: The above used product classification has been solely undertaken by the seller. Amazon shall neither be liable nor responsible for any used product classification undertaken by the seller. A-to-Z Guarantee not applicable on used products...Categorized as:
children classics 20th-century action-adventure audiobook book children-books fairy-tale -
Die Schattenspinnerin by Susan Fletcher, Anne Brauner
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIn an adventure equal to any a storyteller might relate, a crippled serving girl faces the intrigues of the harem, the dangers of the streets, and the anger of the Sultan himself to find the needed ending to an incomplete story...Categorized as:
children classics historical-fiction realistic 20th-century action-adventure audiobook book -
Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsWhen orphan Maria arrives at Moonacre Manor, she feels like she's come home. Her new guardian is kind, like an old friend. However, beneath the beauty and comfort lies a tragedy. Maria is determined to find out about it, change it, and give her own life story a happy ending...Categorized as:
children classics family historical-fiction industrial-era 20th-century action-adventure animals -
The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsWicked wolves and a grim governess threaten Bonnie and her cousin Sylvia when Bonnie's parents leave Willoughby Chase for a sea voyage. Left in the care of the cruel Miss Slighcarp, the girls can hardly believe what is happening to their once happy home. The servants are dismissed, the furniture is sold, and Bonnie and Sylvia are sent to a prison-like orphan school...Categorized as:
children classics family historical-fiction industrial-era realistic 20th-century action-adventure -
Another Fine Myth by Robert Lynn Asprin
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsSkeeve was a magician's apprentice--until an assassin struck and his master was killed. Now, with a purple-tongued demon named Aahz as a companion, he's on a quest to get even... -
Blood of Amber by Roger Zelazny
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 39 ratingsAlternate cover for ISBN 0380896362 / 9780380896363Pursued by a fiendish enemy, Merle must battle through an intricate web of vengeance and murder that threatens more than the San Francisco Bay area... -
Tales from Two Pockets by Karel Čapek
Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsCapek wrote 48 stories that deconstruct the mystery story by breaking one rule here, three rules there, and yet also make for wonderful reading. His unique approaches to the mysteries of justice and truth are full of the ordinary and the extraordinary, humor and humanism... -
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Tom's Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 38 ratingsWhen his brother catches measles, Tom is sent away for the summer to stay with his uncle and aunt and is thoroughly fed up about it. What a boring summer it's going to be. But then, lying in bed one night, he hears the old grandfather clock in the hall strike the very strange hour of 13 o'clock. What can it mean? As Tom creeps downstairs and opens the door, he finds out..Categorized as:
children classics historical-fiction industrial-era 20th-century action-adventure audiobook book -
The Mirror of Fate by T.A. Barron
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 33 ratingsWHAT THE MIRROR REFLECTS...Strange wickedness is rising up on the magical Isle of Fincayra. To save his homeland, and his destiny, Merlin is forced to travel to frightening places - both on the land and within himself. Joined by Hallia, the deer-woman he has grown to love, and by his own mischievous shadow, Merlin discovers a magical mirror that can alter anyone's fate...Categorized as:
children classics historical-fiction 20th-century action-adventure arthurian book coming-of-age -
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang by Ian Fleming, John Burningham
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsWhen an inventor brings home an old racing car and rebuilds it, the family gets more than they counted on--because the car has some hidden talents of her own. The family's jaunt to France gets the children kidnapped and involved in a counterfeiting plot..Categorized as:
children classics family historical-fiction humor industrial-era steampunk 20th-century -
The Plastic Magician by Charlie N. Holmberg
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsWall Street Journal bestselling author Charlie N. Holmberg returns to the enchanting world of The Paper Magician.Alvie Brechenmacher has arrived in London to begin her training in Polymaking—the magical discipline of bespelling plastic. Polymaking is the newest form of magic, and in a field where there is so much left to learn, every Polymaker dreams of making the next big discovery... -
Charlotte Sometimes by Penelope Farmer
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsAfter Charlotte's first night at boarding school, the view from the window has changed and the girl in the next bed is not the girl who was there last night. She is a stranger who calls Charlotte "Clare" and says she's her sister..Categorized as:
children classics family historical-fiction 20th-century action-adventure audiobook boarding-school -
The Star of Kazan by Eva Ibbotson
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsAnnika has never had a birthday. Instead she celebrates her Found Day, the day a housemaid and a cook to three eccentric Viennese professors found her and took her home...Categorized as:
children classics family historical-fiction realistic 20th-century action-adventure animals
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