Mercedes And The Chocolate Pilot

Neeley got to take part in the most amazing opportunity involving this book a couple of weeks ago, and I have asked her to blog about it here in her own lil 9 year old words, so here she goes.....

{"Mercedes came to our school and she read this story to us. This story was about a little girl in Berlin when the Berlin Wall was up. And she lived in East Berlin. And there was a pilot who dropped chocolate every day 3 times a day. And she never got any, so she wrote him a letter and told him to look for her white chicken in the court yard and drop some candy there. But he couldn't find it, and so he mailed it to her. And um....um...and now he comes to visit her sometimes."}

Isn't she a great writer? Yes, Neeley got most of the story right above. And our local kids got the awesome opportunity to meet Mercedes and some other local kids as Mercedes came to our school to read this story. There was not a dry eye in the place by the time the story was read all the way through.

I did not know a lot about the history of this book before this event, so this was an education to me as well. I went to the event with our German neighbor so it helped to have someone sitting next to me to help through the translation of some of it. The book was read half by Mercedes herself, who read her parts in German, and the other half by Gen. Ward, in English. And Mercedes brought along a whole gaggle of German kiddos with her to the event.

All of the kiddos then got to make some crafts and learn some other lessons involving the story. It was a very interesting event. Neeley LOVED it to say the least.

If you do not know about this story, here is a lil synopsis....

{This book is based on a true life event about a pilot who flew missions across Berlin, Germany, after the end of WWII. These missions were different from those flown by most pilots. After the defeat of Germany, the country was divided among the Allies who had defeated Hitler. On June 24, 1948, however, Russia’s leader, Joseph Stalin, moved to take all of Germany, and he cut off food and supplies to the West Berlin Allied sector. To avoid another world war, British and American forces flew more than 277,000 missions to deliver millions of tons of food and supplies to the 2.2 million people, deep within Russian territory. One most compassionate pilot, Capt. Halvorsen, dropped chocolates and candies to the children of West Berlin, knowing how difficult wartime was for children who could not fully comprehend what was happening around them. This story tells how this act of kindness changed the life of one young girl and connected her life to Capt. Halvorsen’s.}

Go ahead...order your own copy of the book HERE. You will not be disappointed. What a lesson to learn!!