Flight for Freedom: The Wetzel Family’s Daring Escape from East Germany

Gr 2-5–East Berlin, 1979. Six-year-old Peter, who was born during the Cold War, knew that other children watched cartoons, wore jeans, and ate pizza, but he never had those experiences. His parents had to be careful in what they said and did, and they all lived under tight government restrictions. An atmosphere of fear was always present. Peter noticed his parents buying odd supplies and heard them working on a secret project at night. When he found a newspaper photo of a huge balloon, his parents made him promise to never talk about it. Peter was ready, however, when his parents woke him in the middle of the night and told him it was time to leave. Peter’s parents and their friends, the Strelzyk family, quietly built a hot air balloon to use to escape to West Germany. These events seem too incredible to be true, but they really happened. The dramatic exit and daring flight will hold readers in suspense as they, like Peter, wait anxiously to make sure the families end up outside of the Berlin Wall.