Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes by Eleanor Coerr is a moving novel based on the true story of Sadako Sasaki, an eleven-year-old girl living in postwar Japan. When she was just a baby, the atom bomb fell on her city, Hiroshima. But to Sadako, the bomb is a distant dream. Her busy, happy days are filled with school, family, and training to become the star athlete of the relay team.

It’s only when the dizzy spells start, that Sadako begins to think about the bomb, the scarred survivors, and her own mortality.

As Sadako begins to battle leukemia, her friend tells her the legend of the thousand paper cranes. If a person folds a thousand, the gods will grant her wish. Sadako sets to work, folding cranes for as long as she is able to.

Today in Japan, Sadako and her cranes live on as a symbol of hope for peace.

I read this book when I was quite young, and I never forgot the story. It was one of the first books I had ever read that depicted a dying child. It can be difficult to discuss things like death with our students, but it’s important that we have open discussions with them about it. It’s even more important to teach kids about the reality of suffering that comes with war. Ultimately, however, this book is a hopeful one. When I visited Hiroshima last summer, I saw Sadako’s statue surrounded by hundreds of thosuands of paper cranes. Her wish has been multiplied a thousand times over, by people from all around the world.

If you want to learn more about a significant event from a very human perspective, I would really recommend this book. It’s also filled with wonderful little details about Japanese culture. You could easily use this book as a gateway for so many activities and discussions – making origami, trying out foods/learning about other cultures, discussions about war and history. Thank you for reading my book blog!