Hot-Air Henry (Reading Rainbow)

Rating:
Summary: Henry is the Best
Review: Henry, of Hot Air Henry and other books, is the absolute best. Try the Reading Rainbow video of the book also. It is incredible.

Rating:
Summary: Hot-Air Henry
Review: Hot-Air Henry was published in 1981, written by Mary Calhoun and Illustrated by Erick Ingraham.
Hot-Air Henry is a book that I think children would like if they like adventure books and books about animals. The book is about a sassy Siamese cat named Henry that wanted to fly with his family in their hot-air balloon, but the man always said that he wasn't flying with a cat. When they got done filling up the balloon with air and setting it up, the kid was holding down the basket. So henry ran to the basket and hopped in it. All of a sudden the balloon heated up and it took off with just Henry in the balloon, so he was flying. While he was in the air...he was traveling over the mountains and the rivers, into the sky! As he peaked over the side he couldn't see Colson Hill or the power lines. All of a sudden all these birds came at him and the balloon. The wind took him toward the mountains in the wrong direction. And now he didn't know what to do! Then in the air an eagle screeched at him, so he was scared even more. Then he heard a "honk honk honk" and it was a gesse. So now the cat and the geese were in the basket flying over everything together. But wasn't the greatest because they kept on fighting. Henry flew over the geese and made the geese go away...saying " honk honk". Then Henry pulled the ripcord and the basket came floating downward toward the ground. At last the man grabbed the basket and safely Henry returned.

Rating:
Summary: My son loves it!
Review: Personally, I find this book to be very irritating, mainly because I don't like the style in which it is written. On the other hand, my son who just turned 4, absolutely LOVES it. We read it several times a day and I don't forsee him getting tired of it anytime soon. I'm not sure what attracts him so much to this particular book, but he chooses it over every other. It is an "exciting" tale about a cat who solos in a hot air balloon and it has good pictures. The cat manages to land exactly where he started and encounters many obstacles along the way such as navigating around high-strung power lines, and protecting the hot air balloon from an eagle and a goose.