BITTERSWEET

Hungry children in postwar Berlin see candy float down from the sky in this re-creation of a historical incident.

Aside from a fictive point-of-view character, Mandin’s account reflects historical records. In a divided country, in a divided city, pale-skinned young Hilda and other children wander through bombed-out streets, subsisting on scarce rations. When an American airman named Gail Halvorsen sees the reverence with which a group of youngsters shares two sticks of gum, he heads back to base, ties small bundles of chocolates and other sweets into parachutes made out of handkerchiefs, and adds them to the provisions being dropped by the Berlin Airlift—secretly at first, but then with official and volunteer support after reports of a clandestine “candy bomber” hit the papers. “Operation Little Vittles” went on to provide an amazing 23 tons of sweets—“key ingredients in the recipe for healing,” writes Mandin in a lyrical close. If her tidy illustrations of fresh-faced, neatly turned-out young people living in broad streets strewn with clean-looking rubble veer on the treacly side, they do reflect the sweetness of both the episode and the altruistic impulse behind it. Scenes of service people and volunteers include some dark-skinned figures.

A satisfying salute to a little-known act of kindness.