Inspired by the story written when he was a child, Billy Balloon is the debut in the self-titled series hoping to share adventures for the young reader and their parents. This book features the journey of Billy Balloon and his siblings and friends getting ready for the Great Balloon Race. Each year cards written by children in school are attached to them in the hopes that they will be discovered by another child and become a penpal. Whoever is determined to reach the farthest becomes the winner.

An interesting book to lead the series, with colorful illustrations that has a goal that would be such a fun idea to inspire a child’s imagination. Actually, I know at their age how great it was to be able to make a new friend with a pen pal, which by the way, we are still friends today. This would be such a fun idea for kids to learn about a new place and hopefully be the start of a wonderful friendship.

My only issue was the ending. When the goal of the book was reached for this character, it left me with a wonderful feeling. I thought it was a sweet story but then in the last couple of lines, the character did something that left me with a few questions. The author leaves an open ended question about whether the race is over or not but I just feel like that contradicts the goal of them in the book if he went back out there. He can’t participate. Once you reach a child, that’s it. Where did he go? What happened to everyone else? Do they all meet up again somewhere? Who won? I felt like it unwrapped the ending. Yes, presumably you can draw your own conclusions but if this is going to be a series, it would’ve been nice to be wrapped up in one book. That way we can experience the next adventure with Billy. Despite my questions, overall I enjoyed the book.

Unique to this series, the author has extended an open ended invitation for families to submit future ideas for co-authoring books. I’m curious and look forward to seeing the creativity that will evolve from this series.

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