Adventures take wing

A new series of books, written by a father whose son had difficulty reading, tells of a 12-year-old boy's friendship with a group of Royal Air Force officers during World War II.

By ALEX ZIMMET

© St. Petersburg Times, published February 19, 2001

Okay, so he's not Harry Potter. He can't cast spells or anything like that. But Harry Winslow is still a kid worth meeting. He's determined. He's smart. He's a people pleaser. You can get to know him in the pages of a new series of books by Don Patterson, Tales of the RAF (Hindsight Limited).

Tales of the RAF is a series of six books geared to boys ages 5 to 13. Each story is set in England during World War II. Harry hangs out with a group of pilots from the Royal Air Force while his dad is away battling in the war. He has some exciting adventures and learns some valuable lessons. The 12-year-old learns about friendship, responsibility, respect and leadership through action-packed adventures and airplanes. The books move along quickly, and they're not very long. The text is bigger than most chapter books and they're easy to read.

"I remember when I was my son's age," Patterson explains in a press release, "I always shied away from thick books and small print." The pictures may be less than lifelike but don't let that keep you from booking your adventure with Harry.

Harry meets Col. Harrison, Capt. Dawson, Capt. Simms and others in the books. In the third book, Spitfire, Col. Harrison says that Harry isn't allowed to come to the base because of orders the colonel received from his superiors. When the pilots get new planes, all Harry can do to see the planes is come to the fence that separates his house from the airfield. He finds a way to get onto the base anyway and -- you'll just have to read the book to find out the rest.

It was a long, frustrating journey that brought Don Patterson to write these books, according to press material. He and his son, Ian, who was 7 at the time, kept going to libraries and bookstores. They were looking for books for Ian, who was struggling with reading, but, they always left empty-handed. Ian was fascinated with airplanes, trucks, outer space and anything having to do with machines. He didn't enjoy the "creepy" or "morphing" books that seemed to fill up the shelves at bookstores and libraries for his age group. Patterson decided he'd just have to write his son's books himself.

After a trip to see old warplanes at the Planes of Fame Museum in Minnesota, Patterson discovered a topic that excited Ian. He asked Ian's third grade teacher to be his editor.

If you look for action, adventure, danger or mystery, you'll find it between the covers of the Tales of the RAF series.

Alex Zimmet, 9, is in the fourth grade at Cypress Woods Elementary School in Palm Harbor.

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