Best Balloon Ride Ever

by Richard Scarry

Richard Scarry fans will delight in this collectible hardcover edition of the classic Little Golden tale. Join Lowly Worm and all of the other favorite characters as they take the best balloon ride ever!

Genres: Picture Books, Adventure, Childrens, Fiction, Animals

24 pages, Hardcover

First published May 26, 1994

About the author

RICHARD SCARRY is one of the world's best-loved children's authors EVER! In his extraordinary career, Scarry illustrated over 150 books, many of which have never been out of print. His books have sold over 100 million copies around the world, and are currently published in over twenty languages. No other illustrator has shown such a lively interest in the words and concepts of early childhood. Richard Scarry was posthumously awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society of Illustrators in 2012.

Reviews

[Christina]

I recently tracked down and reread Scarry’s What Do People Do All Day?, a childhood favorite. I had to make space for it in my library, and found this and another Scarry Little Golden Book. It features the characters of Busytown, focusing on young Huckle Cat and Lowly Worm who end up in a runaway hot air balloon.

Oddly there’s a trio described as the Three Beggars: Harry Hyena, Benny Baboon, and Wolfgang Wolf fishing. They play a key role in the story, but seem to be the unemployed and possibly homeless characters of Busytown, where people are defined by their industry and employment, wearing patched and sloppy clothes relative to other characters. They’re not the characters you’d expect in a children’s picture book. And they turn up in another Little Golden Book, Richard Scarry’s The Snowstorm Surprise.

As much as I like Scarry’s work, I don’t think this is a keeper. I like the illustrations, in part due to nostalgia, but the plot here, while solid, isn’t a standout. I prefer where Scarry gets into the how of things.

[Kylie Abecca]

Very cute little book. More about the fishermen than the balloon ride though.

[Weirdfi]

Re-read a childhood book from my shelves, still just as cute.

[Susan Molloy]

Fun, clever, and a perfectly quick read while waiting for the automobile at the dealership.

📚 Read book version.

[Heidi]

Richard Scarry books are always a treasure. This one is no exception.

[Gingaeru]

I'm not very familiar with Richard Scarry's "Busytown" setting; I much prefer his earlier style over this. But those green ants in the news van with the sentient video camera are highly cute.

[Siskiyou-Suzy]

It's an okay story -- Busytown is as charming as ever. Though they do apparently have a homeless population.