This is the story of eleven-year-old Sadoko, a Japanese girl who had been exposed to the atomic bomb dropped on the city of Hiroshima, the city in which she lived when she was a young child. She survived that catastrophe but later went on to develop leukemia after having been exposed to the radiation of the bomb. The story starts with Sadoko being a healthy child who especially loved racing. As she became sick, the story told about her hospitalization and her realization that her disease was both painful and lethal. She tried to fight her disease by being optimistic and creating paper cranes with the hope that, if she were to make one thousand paper cranes, her wish to live would come true. That is not what happened.

Sadako's story is deeply emotional and beautifully told. It's a plea for friendship and peace. It ends with a telling of how this book came to be written as well as giving detailed instructions with diagrams for how to make a paper crane. ( )

Story of a young girl dying of cancer due to dropping the atomic bomb. ( )

Miss 12 said it was a good story about having hope.
Enjoyed this book as a read aloud. Very sad, I probably wouldn't let the kids read it on their own but had a discussion about the book with them as we read it. Definitely a tear jerker. ( )

Year 4

historical fiction, Japanese culture, Hiroshima, chapter book ( )