Henry Fanshaw Takes Flight

When we think about war, we don’t normally imagine teddy bears and fun times, especially in the present world situation.

In this, the second true story about the exciting adventures of Henry the teddy bear mascot for the Royal New Zealand Air Force 75 Squadron, we learn about all the places he visited. It is narrated by the voice of Henry in both text and graphic-novel style speech/thinking bubbles.

It is a large hard-covered book with quite thick pages—good for lots of little and not so little hands!. The old-world type illustrations do justice to the text. Henry wears a real uniform and learns all about the pilots, their training and the pranks they get up to! He was bear-napped by No. 3 Squadron and they sent a ransom note to 75 Squadron! When he was in Timor-Leste, he lost his eye. He’s been dangled from a helicopter, been in a submarine, travelled to lots of different places and when he finally came home he was promoted from Flying Officer to Flight Lieutenant. His favourite memory was traveling all over New Zealand with the Kiwi Red aerobatic team. Henry has now retired and lives in the Air Force Museum of New Zealand at Wigram.

At the back of the book there are 2 pages of detailed information about the Royal New Zealand Air Force, including about Skyhawks, local defence addressing issues like illegal fishing, and peace-keeping.

This book (and the first book) would be a valuable addition to any school library.