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Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes
by
Hiroshima
by
Two-year-old Sadako Sasaki was living in Hiroshima when the atom bomb was dropped. Sadly, ten years later, she was diagnosed with leukemia, also known as "atom bomb disease."
There is a Japanese legend that says that if a sick person folds 1,000 paper cranes, the gods will make her well again. Sadako spent long hours in bed, folding those paper cranes, and never giving up that hope. When Sadako had folded six hundred and forty-four cranes, and they hung above her bed on strings, her classmates folded the rest.
Today there is a memorial in Hiroshima Peace Park dedicated to Sadako. Children come there and leave the paper cranes they make in her honor.
Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes is based on a true story.
Scholastic, 2019
Although Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes closely follows the details of the real-life Sadako Sasaki's life and death, it is considered historical fiction. While Sadako Sasaki's life was well documented in her diary, the novel adds to the factual account conversations and thoughts that Coerr invented.
“This is our cry. This is our prayer. Peace in the world."
Sadako was two years old, and two kilometres away from the atomic bomb when it was dropped on Hiroshima. Most of Sadako’s neighbors died, but Sadako wasn’t injured at all, at least not in any way people could see.
Chapter 1 - Good Luck Signs: Sadako is excited to go ot the Peace Day celebration. Her mother reminds her that the day is about remembering the people who lost their lives when the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, including Sadako's grandmother.
Chapter 2 - Peace Day: Sadako meets up with her friend Chizuko. The girls enjoy eating cotton candy and looking at all of the pretty things the vendors have for visitors to buy, but looking at the scarred faces of the bomb victims makes Sadako uncomfortable.
Chapter 3 - Sadako's Secret: Sadako helps her team win a big race on Field Day, but suffers from an unexplained dizzy spell she keeps a secret.
The dizziness continues as she is training to make the relay team in junior high.
Chapter 4 - A Secret No Longer: Sadako becomes dizzy and falls down in class. She is taken to the hospital and diagnosed with leukemia.
Chapter 5 - The Golden Crane: Chizuko is Sadako's first visitor in the hospital. She brings golden origami paper and encourages Sadako to fold cranes by telling her the legend of the 1,000 paper cranes. The girls decide that folding cranes may help Sadako get well again. Sadako completes her first 12 cranes.
Chapter 6 - Kenji: All of Sadako's family, friends, and classmates are saving paper for her project.
She meets a boy named Kenji who also has leukemia. They become friends, but he soon passes away. Sadako has now folded 464 cranes.
Chapter 7 - Hundreds of Wishes: The leukemia makes Sadako feel tired all the time. Her mother and brother bring Sadako her favorite foods and try to cheer her up. Sadako has now completed 541 cranes.
Chapter 8 - Last Days: Sadako gets to go home to visit her family for O Bon, a holiday celebrating the spirits of the dead who have returned to visit the people they loved on Earth. She enjoys seeing her family and her friend Chizuko, but is very weak. Her mother gives her a kimono and she folds paper crane number 644. It is the last crane she is able to make.
Chapter 9 - Racing with the Wind: Sadako is too weak to fold cranes, but is surrounded by her family. She passes away on October 25, 1955.
Epilogue: Sadako's classmates fold the remaining 356 origami cranes so that 1,000 paper cranes are buried with her. Throughout the world, young Sadako becomes a symbol of peace.
Taken from Hinders, D. (2016). Your Guide to Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes. About.com Home. <http://origami.about.com/od/History-Of-Origami/a/A-Guide-To-Sadako-And-The-Thousand-Paper-Cranes.htm>
Image retrieved from Goodreads, 2019
Eleanor Coerr was born in Kamsack, Saskatchewan, Canada, and grew up in Saskatoon. Two of her favorite childhood hobbies were reading and making up stories. Eleanor began her professional life as a newspaper reporter and editor of a column for children. Luckily, she travelled to Japan in 1949 as a writer for the Ottawa Journal, since none of the other staff wanted to go to a country that had been devastated by war. Coerr is the writer of numerous children’s book and picture books.
Penguin Random House, 2019