First Person Fiction is dedicated to the immigrant experience in modern America. "Flight to Freedom" is closely based on Suarez's own story of leaving Cuba during the Freedom Flights of the 1960s. Yara Garcia and her family live a middle-class life in Havana, Cuba. But in 1967, as Communist ruler Fidel Castro tightens his hold on Cuba, the Garcias, who do not share the political beliefs of the Communist Party, are forced to flee to Miami, Florida. There, Yara encounters a strange land with foreign customs. She knows very little English, and she finds that the other students in her new school have much more freedom than she and her sisters. Tension develops between her parents, as Mami grows more independent and Papi joins a militant anti-Castro organization.

An Inspiring True Story about One Family's Escape from Behind the Berlin Wall! Peter was born on the east side of Germany, the side that wasn't free. He watches news programs rather than cartoons, and wears scratchy uniforms instead of blue jeans. His family endures long lines and early curfews. But Peter knows it won't always be this way. Peter and his family have a secret. Late at night in their attic, they are piecing together a hot air balloon—and a plan. Can Peter and his family fly their way to freedom? This is the true story of a boy and his family who risk their lives for the hope of freedom in a daring escape from East Germany via a handmade hot air balloon in 1979. • A perfect picture book for educators teaching about the Cold War, the Iron Curtain, and East Germany • Flight for Freedom is a showcase for lessons of bravery, heroism, family, and perseverance, as well as stunning history • Includes detailed maps of the Wetzel family's escape route and diagrams of their hot air balloon For fans of historical nonfiction picture books like Let the Children March, The Wall, Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain, and Armstrong: The Adventurous Journey of a Mouse to the Moon. • True life escape stories • For readers age 5–9 • For teachers, librarians, and historians Kristen Fulton is a children's book author. She can always be found with a notebook in hand as she ventures through historical sites and museums. Most of the time she lives in Florida—but she can also be found traveling the country by RV. Torben Kuhlmann is an award-winning children's book author and illustrator. Starting in kindergarten he became known as "the draftsman." Flying machines and rich historical detail often adorn his work. He lives in Hamburg, Germany.

A riveting account of a daring escape from Communist Hungary in a twin-engine plane: “I couldn’t put it down” —San Diego Union-Tribune. On the rainy afternoon of Friday, July 13, 1956, seven desperate young people boarded a twin engine DC-3 in the People’s Republic of Hungary, with the intention of diverting it to West Germany. They had no weapons, no map, and no idea whether the plane carried enough fuel to get them there. They would have to brave the gun of the security officer on board, the wild maneuvers of the pilot, the Russian MiG fighters in hot pursuit, and a harrowing flight over the stormy Alps, without navigation. Failure would mean certain death. And a spectacular escape from tyranny was born . . .

This is the story of my survival, adventures, experiences, and insights about geopolitics and changing worldviews from before World War II Lithuania to Soviet occupation and my escape and evasion through wartime Germany till the end of WWII. It also talks about my life as a refugee in displaced-persons camp for four years and my immigration to the United States of America in 1949. Five years later, having graduated from the Citadel Military College, I was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the US Air Force and participated in the Cold War as a combat crew member of Strategic Air Commands Bombers B-52 and B-58. Then I had a stint with research and development of F-111 weapons systems at Wright Air Development Center and about a year in Southeast Asian war (Vietnam) with an F-111 fighter-bomber detachment. Then I went back to Europe on an US AF project. Finally, after twenty-two years, I retired from the Air Force to Southern California and worked in the aerospace industry and had new experiences and insights about mens venture into the cosmos. However, after the dissolution of Soviet Union, the old country of Lithuania became free, and I went there to help rebuild the country and pay my debt to it by consulting the general staff and teaching at the military academy there. There are more insights and adventures. Finally, I retire to cool my heels in the warm waters of the Pacific Rim in Southern Californias Rancho Palos Verdes as a freelance writer.

This book is about the struggles of enslaved Africans in the Americas who achieved freedom through flight and the establishment of Maroon communities in the face of overwhelming military odds on the part of the slaveholders.

Famed Czech Avant-garde photographer Jan Lukas snapped an offhand portrait of twelve-year-old Vendulka Vogl in March 1943. A friend of the Vogls, Lukas was saying goodbye to the family, who were soon to leave Prague for a concentration camp. The photograph almost didn’t see the light of day—Lukas knew that if the Nazis found it on him, he could wind up in the camps as well—but the image was eventually developed and came to symbolize the Holocaust and humanize its victims. Seventy years after this famous picture was taken, investigative journalist Ondřej Kundra discovered that, despite all odds, Vendulka Vogl had survived the camps of Terezín, Auschwitz, and Christianstadt, and was in fact still alive and living in the United States. Kundra persuaded her to tell the remarkable story surrounding the photograph: her survival, her later decision to flee the Communist regime for America, and how she later reconnected with Jan Lukas, maintaining a lifelong friendship. Vogl’s thrillingly moving story, Kundra’s sharp and engaging writing, and Lukas’s striking photography all combine to make Vendulka an inspiring investigation into the horrors of totalitarianism and the redemptive beauty of friendship.