Airshow - Book Review

"Airshow" is a beautifully illustrated book about a fun day of discovery for three young children and their parents at an airshow published by Black Rose Writing. It is also Mark Hewitt debut entry into children’s literature, a big change from his normal fare of writing fast-paced thrillers and conspiracies books. "Airshow" is nicely illustrated by Nikki Mate. It is interesting to note that both Mark Hewitt and Nikki Mate have been combat-pilots and grew up loving aeronautics. The book is Hewitt’s and Nikki tribute to the aircraft that have been so much a part of their life.

"Airshow" is a book for young children. Its dialog is written with the goal that a 5-year-old should easily be able to understand it. At just 34 pages, it is an easy and fun book for mom or dad to read to their children. The many illustrations and simple dialog should make it easy to capture the attention of children with even the shortest of attention spans. Nikki Mate’s intricate and colorful illustrations provide views of over 34 different military aircraft. Hewitt explains the differences of the various types of aircraft in terms that young children can easily comprehend. With all of the different types of aircraft shown, there is a new discovery with each turn of the page.  Hewitt has his young protagonist meeting the pilots of several of the aircraft at the show.  Both Hewitt and Mate are veterans of many real airshows and it’s obvious that they want to bring the wonderment and excitement that they once felt, into their debut book, Airshow.

Aviation lovers will enjoy the nifty illustrations of planes, jets, and helicopters, and everyone will enjoy Nikki Mate’s colorful characters. For serious aircraft fans and future pilots near the end of the book, Hewitt lists the aircraft and the pages they appeared on. I assure you, if your youngsters are remotely interested in aviation they will love “Airshow,” and you will end up rereading this story repeatedly until you purchase your own airshow tickets.