B for Buster

by Iain Lawrence

Book Overview

Nicknamed after his hometown of Kakabeka, Canada, Kak dreams of flying with the Allied bombers in World War II. So at 16, underage and desperate to escape his abusive parents, he enlists in the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0385730861
• ISBN13: 9780385730860
• Release Date: June 2004
• Publisher: Delacorte Press
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.8" x 8.3"
• Age Range: 12 to 17 years
• Grade Range: Grades 7 to 12

Customer Reviews

B for Buster

B for buster is a wonderful book and it is about a young boy who joins the canadian airforce and starts to fly ops and is put in a old fighter plane called B for buster and one night he is in the plane looking around he thinks he finds a ghost of the people who flew before him and his crew and flew

A wild ride

My 10 year old son was given this book for his birthday. It took him a while to get around to reading it, but once he did his comments were,"When Kak joins the Air Force you're in for a wild ride". He has put this book on his 5th grade class 5 star list.

B for Buster: unfortunate title, great book

I am a school librarian and probably would not have picked up this book if it weren't for the fact that I bought it for the library and thought I should read it. Well, it was wonderful and having just finished reading The Last Days of Summer by Steve Kluger, another WWII book, it was a great follow-up. Granted, the two books are very different in tone and setting, but both do a excellent job of telling a story of a young man growing up in a very difficult time. I highly recommend it for teens and adults alike. It's simply a good read and what can be wrong with that?!?

Superb

This book, though long and detailed for the young adult audience, is extremely well written. It starts slowly, the first 50 pages or so, as we learn about Kak's fears. But, as the aerial bombings begin, the story, the writing, becomes fast paced and beautifully told. I love "Nutcracker Men" and I loved "Buster".

Dramatic adventure set during World War II

Kak is desperate for a chance to get away from the dark presence of his family and create a brighter future for himself. The one chance for him, Kak decides, is to enlist in the Canadian Air Force. By doing so, he hopes to become a part of the Allied bombers during WWII. He dreams of showing off the honor of being a hero to his hometown of Kakabeka. Kak has one little secret, though --- he's only sixteen. He is trained as a wireless operator and sent to a squadron in England. It is the spring of 1943 and the war is still going strong. When Kak arrives at an airfield in Yorkshire, his secret is immediately put to the test. His fellow hometown schoolmate, Donny Lee, is stationed at the airfield and is shocked to see Kak walk into the mess hall. Donny threatens to expose Kak's secret in order to save Kak's life, but relents when he sees how desperate his young friend is. Kak meets his commanding officer, Uncle Joe, and is assigned to B for Buster. B for Buster is an old Halifax Mk 1 that has seen better in its day, but is considered reliable just the same. When his crew is taken to their assigned hut, they realize just what Buster has seen by the scarce number of occupied cots in the hut. The next day, they go on their first test flight in B for Buster, and Kak is chilled by the story of the Halifax's previous crew. While they are gearing up for their first op, Lofty, the plane's pilot, goes on a "passenger trip" with another plane. The almost twenty-year-old is considered to be an adult by Kak and wants to be a bush pilot after the war. Buzz, the mid-upper gunner for Buster, is a former railway worker whose only goal in life, it seems, is to complete a crossword puzzle he cut out from a newspaper on his first day in England. Will, the navigator, would rather write poetry than study law, and Simon, the loud Australian, is the loudest gardener Kak has ever met. Ratty, the mysterious American, would like to see Berlin, and Pop, the flight engineer, just wants to make it home safely. Time goes by and Donny Lee takes Kak for a ride out into the surrounding countryside. They take Donny's old black Morris automobile and Kak experiences just how crazy a ride it can be. But that's nothing compared to what it can be when a crew of seven ride in it, as Kak has witnessed before. The two schoolmates bond over stories of their hometown, and Donny tries once again to talk Kak into quitting the air force while he has the chance. Kak is excited about flying, though, and the ride that day seems to foreshadow the many dramatic changes that lie ahead. Then the day finally comes, and B for Buster is called on for its first op. Kak is excited and feels as though it will be like a comic-book adventure where good beats evil. He is even a little too sure of himself, when he is given the task of watching over the homing pigeon that has been assigned to the op and is rude to the kind dismal pigeoneer named Dirty Bert. Kak is in for a reality check, however, when he expe