Mercedes and the Chocolate Pilot

I would really like to use Mercedes and the Chocolate Pilot in my classroom. This book is about the Berlin Airlift. It highlights the true story of one young girl during the time, and a pilot that dropped candy down to the children in West Berlin. I have always loved the story this books tells, and would love to share it with my future students.
This story highlights all of the elements of a story.
Plot: The story begins with Merecedes and her mother reading about the "chocolate pilot." Then Merecedes sees the candy that the "chocolate pilot" drops from his plane and hopes to get some one day. She writes the "chocolate pilot" asking him to drop chocolate into her garden. The story ends with Mercedes receiving a letter and chocolate in the mail from the pilot.
Characters: Mercedes and Lt. Gail Halvorsen are the main characters of this story.
Setting: 1948 West Berlin, Germany- The setting of this story is very important because the story takes place during a specific event, The Berlin Airlift.
Point of View: Omniscient- The story is written in the third person, but the person telling the story is god-like. The feelings and emotions of the characters are known.
Theme: The Berlin Airlift, a story of a young girl and the relationships that were formed during that time.

One idea of an activity that students could do related to this book is to write their own letter to Lt. Gail Halvorsen as if they were a child during the Berlin Airlift. Another idea would be to write a letter or Mercedes, who is actually still alive, and tell her what they felt while reading the story or ask questions about her life.

A purely fun activity for students to do after reading the book is to make their own parachutes with chocolate attached to them.

I think this book tells a great story, and allows students to relate to the people during the time of the Berlin Airlift. It does a great job of showing the connections that people make during hard times, and how a small amount of kindness can really help people.