World War II Pilots: An Interactive History Adventure

by Michael Burgan, Dennis E. Showalter (Consultant Editor)

Air raid! The world’s great powers are at war again. This is the Second World War, but it is history’s first war in which airplanes play a major role. You want to fly and you want to fight. Will  Fly with the Royal Air Force as a British pilot and fight in the Battle of Britain? Dogfight as an American fighter pilot over the Pacific Ocean? Join the Tuskegee Airmen and be one of the first African-American aviators in the U.S. military?

Genres: History, Choose Your Own Adventure, World War II, Nonfiction, Adventure

112 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2013

Reviews

[Quinn Rollins · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I was a kid (a long time ago), there was a series of books called Choose Your Own Adventure. You'd start with a basic storyline, then get asked to make simple yes/no, left/right, eat/don't eat decisions. Each decision would take you to a different page in the book, and in this manner, the story would branch off in different directions. Some directions would lead to success, others to failure.

Michael Burgan has revisited that format with his World War II Pilots: An Interactive History Adventure. The 2013 hardcover is part of his ongoing series of You Choose books; he's got seven others with different World War II themes and settings.

The first short chapter sets the stage for World War II, and why the United States gets involved. By Page 11, you need to make a choice: become a British pilot in the Royal Air Force, an American pilot in the Pacific, or a Tuskegee Airman. From this point on, there are many choices to be made, but Burgan lets each of the three storylines run their course. As with the Choose Your Own Adventure series I loved as a kid, some of these end up with the reader "dying," others to successful missions. We see the racism and triumphs of the Tuskegee Airmen, and the differences between the Spitfire, Mustangs, and other types of military fighters and aircraft. Altogether there are twenty different endings you can find, with 36 choices for kids to make as they read.

Throughout the book, Burgan inserts historic photographs with captions that give context to them. He works in factoids about World War II both in the ongoing storyline and in sidebars. The design of the book is cool, with the text looking like it's been printed on aluminum plates screwed into the pages, and the page numbers are on dog tags that drop off the sides.

I really enjoyed this book--enough that I want to pick up some of the other books in the series for my sons. It's the kind of high-interest, informative reading that they love. If you're interested in World War II, and have kids between about 4th and 8th Grade, check out Michael Burgan's series of You Choose books. I've only read one, but I'm hooked.

[Ayden.B · Rating 4 out of 5]

it shows the different perspectives of pilots and the choices they have to make in order to survive.

[Nelda Brangwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Available as a Kindle Unlimited title, this choose your own adventure will make a book young fighter pilots can read again and again. Its available in library hardcover, as well. I preferred the hard cover edition, but if you have Amazon Prime try it out in the Kindle version first.

[Kason Tibbs · Rating 5 out of 5]

You choose and choose your own adventure books is my favorite concept for a non-traditional book. These books give readers the chance to decide what happens in the book, this was something I loved because I didn't want to be forced to read something I wasn't interested in, so this gave me the freedom to choose what I wanted.

[Torey Hurst · Rating 3 out of 5]

World War ll Pilots by Michael Burgan is about how their were many different choices, and decisions that pilots in WWll had to make. For example, they had to choose weather to save a friend or the bombers from the zeros, the Japanese fighter planes. Or they either had to choose the army or the navy. Or what plane they wanted to fly, or if they were going to serve their country or not.
I personally liked it, it just did not have a lot of detail. If it had lore detail then the book would be better.
I would recommend this book to people who like planes, and those who who like to learn about world war two, and people who like to make decisions like in these you choose books.

[Alex Baugh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Last April, I reviewed an interactive book from the YouChoose World War II series called World War II: On the Home Front by Martin Gitlin. I found it to be an excellent book for introducing readers to life on the home front.

Now comes this latest YouChoose adventure, World War II Pilots. The basic premise is that you are given a situation and the story unfolds based on the choices you make at certain junctures of the story. In Chapter 1 of World War II Pilots, the reader is first given some historical information about the events that led to the war beginning at the end of World War I.

At the end of the chapter, you have 3 choices: to follow the path of a British pilot in the RAF, an American pilot fighting in the Pacific Ocean or a Tuskegee Airman - all very interesting choices. So you choose your path and at the end of each chapter, more choices can be made regarding the fate of the chosen pilot. In fact, there are 36 choices altogether, given each pilot 12 possible ways to go. And in the end, there are 20 different possible endings - 7 for the RAF pilot, & for the American pilot and 6 for the Tuskegee Airman.

I know this all sounds complicated. I also think that, too, whenever I start these kinds of books, but they are designed for young readers and really aren't difficult at all and in fact, they are quite informative without being overwhelming. I actually enjoyed going back and forth and making choices to see where each path led. I also liked the photographs that are included and relevant to the path I was following. For example, when I picked the Pacific Ocean pilot, there were pictures of things like Bataan, or the carrier he might taken off from. I also found that concepts that might not be familiar were clearly explained.

I especially like the back matter. First, there is a timeline of events in the war relevant to the stories. Next, there are suggestions for designing your own World War II pilot stories - a female pilot in the RAF or in the US, a German pilot during the Blitz, a POW held by the Japanese or Germans, all requiring so research and imagination. To help this along, there are suggestions for further reading in print and the Internet, a glossary and an extensive bibliography.

World War II Pilots is an excellent book for leisure reading as well as home schooling and classroom use.

This book is recommended for readers age 9-12
This book was an E-ARC from Net Galley

[S Farneth · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolute must have for any elementary library. There are always boys who, even at an early age, have an insatiable appetite for war books and there are very few good books written at an elementary level that give the detail, explanation and experience that this one does.

The introduction and maps in the beginning make it easy to understand how the interactive book should be used. Each chapter sets the stage for how you become involved in the way and gives you choices to become involved one of several ways. If you choose the first choice you go to a given page and continue the story, if you choose one of the other choices you go to another page to continue the adventure.

Burgan did not sugar coat the outcomes of the choices. Some end in crashing your plane and dying; in others you are shot down and may have to eject; still others you may become a prisoner of war.
Throughout the books are photographs which give support to what you are reading about during the war and the choices you have made. When you get assigned to the aircraft carrier San Jacinto, for example, there is a photograph of the actual air craft carrier with details about the ship.
The back of the books gives a timeline of the war covering the event in the book and provides the young reader with a chronology to put things into perspective. It also provides websites and other books that may be of interest to the reader. What is very valuable to the young reader is the glossary defining many of the specific war terms that are used in the story.

No doubt this would be a wonderful addition to any school or personal library for the young World War II reader.

[Nicole Young · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is definitely a great historical fiction book with a fun and different type of writing style. This book describes the use of airplanes in WWII played a major role in which the war pilots had to fly and fight at the same time which can lead to either survival or death. In this book, the readers get to choose if they will fly with the Royal Air Force as a British pilot in the Battle of Britain, dogfight as an American fighter pilot over the Pacific Ocean, or join the Tuskegee Airmen and be one of the first African American aviators in the U.S. military. A major strength of this book is its uniqueness and its historically accurate detail which is written in such a way that is very appealing to children to be able to decide what will happen next in the book, rather than an ordinary book where the reader gets no choice in what happens next. A critique that I have of this book would be that it is certainly targeted for a male audience, since males are usually more interested in the war, and I would have liked to see elements of the story that females could enjoy as well. This book would be excellent to have in the classroom for my students to be able to have fun reading while also learning accurate and historical facts about the second World War and what being a war pilot was like during the war in that time period.

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sure to capture the attention of anyone fascinated by flight or interested in WWII, this title allows readers to choose from three different paths in order to live through a part of history. After deciding whether to become a British pilot in the Royal Air Force, an American pilot flying above the Pacific, or a member of the Tuskegee Airman, a reader follows various paths and encounters different perspectives on the war, and then may return to the beginning of the book and choose another path. There are plenty of action scenes and photographs to heighten any reader's interest. The fact that all paths and endings don't have a happy ending adds to the book's realism.

[Robby Beck · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is great! It is interactive and you can choose what kind of pilot you would like to be. I read all of the pilot stories because I was so interested in learning about all of them. My first choice was to be an American fighter pilot because both of my Great Grandpas were American fighter pilots. You learn many things in this book and I would recommend this book to people who are interested in learning more about fighter pilots during World War II.

[St Stephen's C C]

Air raid! The world s great powers are at war again. This is the Second World War, but it is history s first war in which airplanes play a major role. You want to fly and you want to fight. Will you: Fly with the Royal Air Force as a British pilot and fight in the Battle of Britain?Dogfight as an American fighter pilot over the Pacific Ocean?Join the Tuskegee Airmen and be one of the first African-American aviators in the U.S. military?

[Courtney · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a fun and interesting way to get a brief look at some of the people and events of the war. It is appropriately paced for its target audience, but could include more historical detail. I would happily recommend this for the 2nd-4th grade crowd to supplement a history curriculum or to generate interest in history.

[Sue Poduska · Rating 4 out of 5]

What was it like to fly during the early days of air combat? This is a “You Choose” the path adventure, allowing the reader to explore this question. The author gives a very realistic view of the pilots, right down to the loss of many brave men during the fights.

[Ratforcekids]

Because World War II was the first war where airplanes played a major role, the pilots then were the outlaws of the sky. This story lets you choose which pilot to be (British Royal Airforce, American fighter pilot, Tuskegee Airmen) and follow along through what their battles were like.

[Becca Kirkman · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love the Choose Your Own Adventure books! This book is great because it has great information and it is presented in a fun way. I think boys would love this book.

[Jenpisky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love the choose your own path aspect of the book. Sure to please any child interested in World War Two or military pilots!

[Milton · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s good for kids to read
No bad words