Tales of Tin Can by Michael Keith Olson
Hi my name is Parker and I’m a 7th grader and love reading non-fiction historical books. I also enjoy playing soccer and hanging out with friends.
Tales of a Tin Can is about the sailors aboard the destroyer USS Dale during World War II. It is written by Michael Keith Olson and portrays the day-to-day life of the crew of a small destroyer during the war. The name “tin can” is a term used by sailors for destroyers, as their armor was so thin, some joked it was made out of cans. The USS Dale would serve from December 7, 1941, until the signing of the peace treaty in Tokyo Bay in 1945. The book switches between the perspectives of the crewmembers and it is very cool to see into the day of a sailor.
The USS Dale was a Farragut class destroyer built before the war and was top of the line at the beginning of the war but was out of date by the end of the conflict and was moved to convoy escort. The ship fought from the Aleutian Islands in Alaska to the treacherous waters off Guadalcanal, and fought kamikaze raids around Okinawa and eventually, Tokyo.
The book is written in a first-person account and shows the individual thoughts, feelings, and fears of the sailors who fought. In all I would highly recommend this book for its historical accuracy and how cool it was to see the troubles and the fun times of being a sailor. It was a great read and got me staying up every night to read it.
