Ann Shantz (Canadian Children’s Book News, Fall 2004 (Vol. 27, No. 4))
As the story opens in the spring of 1943, 16-year-old "Kak" (named after his hometown in Canada, Kakabeka) arrives in Yorkshire, England and is chomping at the bit to fly with the Allied bombers. Having lied about his age, he is soon trained as a wireless operator and is thrilled with the prospect of flying heroic bombing missions over Germany. Flying on his first actual "op" shatters all illusions Kak has about fighting a valiant and fearless war. Kak is more terrified than he ever imagined. He's haunted by nightmares and the "ghosts" of the young airmen who don't make it back home. Although his comrades are a decent group of kids, Kak cannot summon up the nerve to confide in them about his fears. As it turns out, Bert, the caretaker of the homing pigeons that go on every op, seems to understand what Kak is going through and he becomes a trusted friend and confidante. Lawrence gives us a richly told and believable story about the grim realities of war and the often confusing nature of courage and cowardice. The author deals with the psychological impact of battle on the airmen in a realistic and moving way. This makes for compelling reading. As a bonus, Lawrence provides a glossary of technical terms, as well as his own personal notes about the war. This excellent novel combines all the elements of a great adventure story with a chilling account of war's impact on the young men who have to fight the battles. Grades 7 and up. 2004, Delacorte Press, (hc) $23.95. Ages 12 up.

Kathleen Karr (Children's Literature)
The accomplished Canadian author Iain Lawrence follows his moody The Lightkeeper's Daughter with an insightful story about the stresses of Allied bombers during World War II. His young hero, Kak, is really young. He has lied about his age and enlisted at sixteen to become a wireless operator for a bombing squad flying out of England. With youthful exuberance, he bounds off on his first night flight over Germany--to return as old as the rest of his prematurely aging crew. The fatality rates are disastrous, and as his missions pile up--shortening the odds of survival--Kak finds the courage to continue only through the wisdom of the flight base's pigeoneer. Through loving the birds that fly with each plane, Kak finally bonds with his fellow crew members. The evocative cover art, the useful maps of the European theater of war in 1943, and the expansive Author's Note at the end of the book are all icing on the cake of Lawrence's moving story. Kak is a believable character who brings to life the drama, pain, and moral issues of fighting blindly against a known enemy. 2004, Delacorte, $15.95. Ages 12 up.

Susie Wilde (Children's Literature)
Kak, nicknamed after his hometown, Kakabeka, Canada, is sixteen when he flees his abusive father and laissez-faire mother. He lies about his age, enlists in the Canadian Air Force and arrives in England happy and eager to serve as a wirelesss operator and become the hero his parents will admire. That changes rapidly when he flies his first bombing raid in B for Buster and learns the terror of surrounding artillery and search lights and sees the horror of scorched German earth which “looks like Hell’s on fire.” This initial fear is made worse knowing that he must face twenty-nine more ops, views more and more planes going down, and begins to see the ghosts of the dead men. The tension of waiting is as sever as the announcement that they will fly missions. Kak finally finds some peace through his relationship with the pigeons who fly on missions and kindly Bert, the pigeon keeper. Bert, a man who seems at first disgusting and filthy turns out to be a pilot who quit with only one mission to fly when he realized he was bombing homes. The book is slow reading, as if there was only so much horror you can take at one sitting. If ever there has been a book that reports on the true feelings of war, this is it. 2004, Delacorte, $15.95. Ages 12 up.

Ian Stewart (CM Magazine, September 17, 2004 (Vol. XI, No. 2))
Iain Lawrence has crafted an incomparable story of 20th century warfare in his gut-wrenching novel, B for Buster. It is a story of a young boy who, as a crewman in a Halifax Bomber, flew bombing missions into Nazi Germany during World War II. Flying bombing missions over Nazi Germany was one of the most dangerous jobs airmen could face. Every time the underpowered, heavily laden bombers lumbered off the English airstrips, the grim reaper sat next to each flyer. The bombers' targets in industrial Germany were hours away; the cities were well defended by anti-aircraft guns and determined German air force fighters. After completing the harrowing operation, the planes still faced danger from attack as they limped home low on fuel, often in horrible weather conditions and likely severely damaged. If an airman completed his 30 combat missions, he would be reassigned; however, the odds of survival were slim, at best. The hero of the novel is a 16-year from Northern Ontario, who had lied about his age to enlist. We are never told his real name - he's only the Kakabeka Kid or Kak for short. In fact, we never learn much about the identity of his crew members. They are just Lofty, Buzz, Pop, Ratty and Simon. Coming from somewhere in the United States, Australia, and Canada, they are brought together by fate to serve the needs of a faceless war. The flying crew had just completed its Halifax Bomber training and has been posted to a remote airstrip in Yorkshire, England. They are excited and ready to join in the battle against Nazi Germany and are assigned the bomber designated B for Buster. Kak is a romantic young man enamored with flying and the idea of being a hero like Captain Marvel or the Green Lantern. However, he soon learns that there is no comic book heroism in the belly of a Halifax Bomber. On their first operation, the plane is rocked by anti-aircraft fire, and he sees other planes in the squadron “getting the chop.” The more operations he flies, the more men he sees die and the greater his terror becomes. However, although almost paralyzed by fear, he continues to fly. He remains loyal to his crewmates and is more terrified of being branded a coward than of dying. Kak avoids his crewmates and shuns the carousing young men often do in the pubs and in the sergeants' mess. His only friend is Bert, a fine and distinctive character that one would expect to find in a Dickens' novel. He is a strange, smelly man who looks after the homing pigeons that fly on the bombers during the missions. Soon Kak is spending more time in the pigeon loft learning the ways of the birds. Bert has his own secrets and understands the fear young Kak feels. Consequently, he and his pigeons are able to help Kak through the dark hours. As his missions continue, Kak begins to understand a simple fact: the war is simply a vast impersonal killing machine. He sees his acquaintances die; he sees children die in the bombing of London; he sees the fire-storms the Allied bombing raids unleash on German civilian populations. There is nothing he can do except hope to live through the terror of the operations and the nightmares that will plague his sleep until his death. B For Buster is a rare and exceptional novel of Canadians at war. Few other young adult novels have been as successful at capturing what it was like to be young, alone and afraid in a faraway place. Highly Recommended. Rating: **** /4. Grades 8 and up 12/ Ages 13 and up. 2004, Delacorte Press/Random House (Distributed in Canada by Random House of Canada), 321 pp., cloth, $23.95. Ages 13 up.

Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, May 15, 2004 (Vol. 72, No. 10))
It's 1943 and Kak is eager to join the war. He lies about his age, makes himself an orphan, and runs away to enlist in the Canadian Air Force. A hometown hero and experienced flier warns him, "You'll fly an op or two, then beg me to get you out." Sure enough, war is nothing like comic-book heroes vanquishing evil. Kak has nightmares of falling out of the sky, he fears waiting, and he fears flying, "hurtling through space above a planet made of fire." This is a familiar story elevated by eloquent writing, a fast-paced plot, and research neatly woven into the narrative. A long author's note supplies background information. A fascinating angle on the fliers is their use of pigeons as message carriers from downed planes, and a slovenly pigeoneer named Bert befriends Kak and helps him through hard times. A sure hit for fans of war stories and adventures. (maps, glossary) 2004, Delacorte, 320p, $15.95. Category: Fiction. Ages 12 up. Starred Review. © 2004 Kirkus Reviews/VNU eMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.

Paula Rohrlick (KLIATT Review, May 2004 (Vol. 38, No. 3))
A 16-year-old boy nicknamed "Kak," after his hometown of Kakabeka, lies about his age and enlists in the Canadian Air Force, dreaming of glory fighting the Germans in WW II. Trained as a wireless operator and sent to England, Kak is excited about flying his first night "op" in a rickety old bomber named B for Buster. Once in the air, he learns what war is really like: a combination of terror and horror. He is frightened of death, and frightened to death, but he believes that everyone else is brave and he is afraid to confess his fears to his crewmates. He gradually befriends an older man named Bert, who takes care of the homing pigeons that accompany every flight, and finds that he can confide in him. One of Bert's pigeons, the dauntless Percy, becomes Kak's good luck charm and even helps save his life, in this sobering look at the real nature of war, fear, courage, and heroism. Lawrence, the author of The Wreckers, Lord of the Nutcracker Men, and other novels for YAs, writes evocatively and movingly about Kak's experiences. He provides an author's note at the end giving some personal and historical background, and includes a glossary of terms. A gripping tale. Category: Hardcover Fiction. KLIATT Codes: JS*--Exceptional book, recommended for junior and senior high school students. 2004, Random House, Delacorte, 320p., $15.95 and $17.95. Ages 12 to 18.

Brenda Ethridge Ferguson (Library Media Connection, November/December 2004)
To a kid of 16, war and flying in bombers is an exciting adventure. That's how Kak, a Canadian kid from Kakabeka, Canada, feels during World War II. When he arrives at an airfield in Yorkshire, England, to become a part of Bomber Command, he is elated. Having lied about his age and background in order to join the Canadian Air Force, Kak runs into Donny Lee, a pilot who is also from Kakabeka. Donny Lee knows Kak's secret and tries to talk him into leaving. But, Kak, having left an abusive home, is unafraid and determined to stay, that is, until he goes on his first mission, a bombing raid over Germany. On that flight, he and the rest of the crew face the horrors of flying through enemy fire to drop their bombs. From that point on, Kak, the crew wireless operator, lives in fear, but eventually takes comfort from a pigeon named Percy. Interwoven within the story of the fliers, the bombs, and the tragic losses of war, is the story of these homing pigeons that join the bombers on their flights. In the end, even Kak's plane and crew are lost though he parachutes to safety. The characters in this novel are both noble and flawed, in a story filled with life's promise and poignant loss. Recommended. 2004, Delacorte Press (Random House), 323pp., $15.95 hc. Ages 12 to 18.

Elizabeth Bush (The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, September 2004 (Vol. 58, No. 1))
Dreams of daring aerial feats and patriotic heroics lure underage Kak into the Canadian Air Force, but his first bombing mission over Germany, in which he serves as wireless operator aboard the patched old crate B for Buster, plunges him into the realization that an airman's life is one of silent, internalized dread and outright, quaking terror. Chances are it will be a short life, too: "I wasn't a whiz at math, but I knew the odds. . . . If I lived as long as twenty-one ops, I was breaking all the laws of average, all the rules of numbers, that I would ever get home to Canada." The base pigeon keeper--himself a demoted and disgraced airman--provides Kak with some degree of hope by assigning him a peculiarly swift bird that will carry home a message of the plane's fate should the craft go down. The homing pigeon, Percy, becomes Kak's good-luck talisman, and although both odds and omens point to a fiery end for B for Buster and her crew, Kak clings to the notion that Percy will somehow pull them through. Lawrence patiently and masterfully spins cycles of anxiety-filled inertia, explosively detailed bombing missions, and increasingly briefer periods of dread between flights, until the final mission in which Percy and Kak are parted over Berlin. (Sorry, I'm not telling.) Readers are apt to forget that Lawrence is the wizard behind the curtain on each flight, as they become caught up in the airmen's good-luck rituals and superstitions of doom which point to different outcomes, drawing the plot line unnervingly taut. Send this straight to the top of the war-story aficionados' list. Review Code: R* -- Denotes books of special distinction. (c) Copyright 2004, The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. 2004, Delacorte, 321p, $17.99 and $15.95. Grades 6-10.

Horn Book (The Horn Book Guide, Fall 2004)
Known as “Kak,” the narrator is a sixteen-year-old Canadian who lied about his age to join the military. Serving as a wireless operator on the bomber B for Buster, Kak endures mounting panic with each bombing run, though he finds some refuge from his fears in his friendship with the squadron’s pigeoneer, Bert. This hefty WWII novel balances scenes of air warfare with the personal experiences of an underage flier. Category: Older Fiction. 2004, Delacorte, 323pp, $15.95, $17.99. Ages 12 to 14. Rating: 3: Recommended, satisfactory in style, content, and/or illustration.

Lynne Hawkins (VOYA, August 2004 (Vol. 27, No. 3))
Real courage is carrying on though you're scared to bits. It's doing what you 'ave to do." Sixteen-year-old Kak, an underage Canadian wireless operator with the British RAF during World War II, does keep flying. The advice is from the pigeoneer who maintains the carrier pigeons included in the crews of the Halifax aircraft that the Canadian Bomber Group flew from Yorkshire. Kak eagerly looks forward to his first op (bombing run) in his crew's Halifax, B for Buster. When he learns more about what happened to a previous crew, and when he sees, on leave in London, the devastation that the bombers deliver, enthusiasm is replaced with cold fear. The suspense here is palpable. The reader gradually trusts in the lucky charms on which the crew depends. When Buzz, their gunner, cannot find a four-leaf clover before a run, the reader is relieved that the run is aborted. Kak assures the crew that it is his lucky pigeon, Percy, that keeps them safe, but neither crew nor reader dares believe that. And when Donny, envisioning his own doom, makes a list of men to inherit his car, it becomes an ordered list of men who do not return. Suggest this book to readers who have enjoyed Robert Westall's Blitzcat (Scholastic, 1989/VOYA February 1990), Harry Mazer's The Last Mission (Delacorte, 1979/VOYA April 1979), or any number of other books about young men eager to go into battle. Lawrence best tells that men who do not fear battle are either ignorant or fools. VOYA CODES: 5Q 4P M J (Hard to imagine it being any better written; Broad general YA appeal; Middle School, defined as grades 6 to 8; Junior High, defined as grades 7 to 9). 2004, Delacorte, 320p., $17.99. Ages 11 to 15.