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Mandin, Christy

Bittersweet: Based on the True Tale of the Berlin Candy Bombers

40 pp. | McElderry | October, 2025 | Trade ISBN 9781665960588 $19.99
(2) K-3 Mandin takes a child-centered approach to exploring postwar deprivation and recovery in this picture book about the Berlin Airlift. Hilda, a (fictional) German child, lives in West Berlin after World War II, where she and her family contend with ongoing food scarcity: she dreams of “a time when life didn’t taste of old bread, bitter and stale.” Hilda and other children befriend an American pilot named Gail, who is struck not only by their hunger but also by their unselfish kindness toward one another. Against military policy, Gail enlists other pilots to help him secretly treat the children with their own mini-airlift of chocolate and gum. Appropriately, the subtly hued art, rendered digitally, is both delicate and sweet in its portrayal of hardship and hopefulness. Although a brief bibliography is provided, some readers may desire more details about the real-life figures at the story’s center than those the back matter provides; the author’s note does make a passionate case for empathy and kindness, especially toward children affected by contemporary wars.
Reviewer: Norah Piehl | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2026

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