Bittersweet: Based on the True Tale of the Berlin Candy Bombers
by Christy Mandin; illus. by the author
Primary    McElderry    40 pp.
10/25    9781665960588    $19.99

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.

From the January/February 2026 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.