Flight for Freedom
The Wetzel Family’s Daring Escape from East Germany
by Kristen Fulton
illustrated by Torben Kuhlmann
Chronicle Books, 2020. 52 pages.
Review written September 11, 2020, from a library book
Starred Review
This picture book tells the true story of two families who escaped from East Germany in a homemade balloon.
They tell the story from the point of view of six-year-old Peter Wetzel, whose parents planned the escape with another family. They welded together a basket, purchased nylon fabric a little bit at a time and sewed it together, and little by little purchased fuel for an engine to heat the air. They designed the balloon based on a picture in a newspaper that a friend had sent to them.
They were discovered soon after lift-off, and the balloon didn’t go as high as they had hoped, but soon ripped in spots and they ran out of fuel. The balloon crashed in a field, and it turned out they had made it – landing in West Germany.
The back matter gives more details and the text explains the situation in a simple way that kids can understand. It turns out that these two families made three escape attempts, and it was the final one that worked. I wish the author had told the story of all three, because it added some urgency that they needed to escape with the third balloon or they would have been caught by the Stasi. But she chose to tell a simple version that still included the danger of capture.
When I lived in Germany, I worked in the library with a lady whose family had gotten a tip when she was 13 years old and escaped into West Germany shortly before the wall went up. It’s hard to imagine leaving everything you know. It’s also hard to imagine constructing a balloon large enough to hold eight people in secret and without schematics. This inherently dramatic story pulls the reader in and makes you interested in all the details in the back matter. The family who escaped still lives in Germany, and the author got to interview them to write this book.
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Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.
Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.
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