William Pène Du Bois

Relates the incredible adventures of Professor William Waterman Sherman who in 1883 sets off in a balloon across the Pacific, survives the volcanic eruption of Krakatoa, and is eventually picked up in the Atlantic.

William's father gives him a basketball and a train but these do not make him want a doll less.

Twenty school children hide ten Jewish children from the Nazis during the occupation of France during World War II.