38. Sadako

Title: Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes
Author: Eleanor Coerr
Publisher: Puffin Books
Copyright Date: 1977
Number of Pages: 63
Reading Level: 10+
Genre: Nonfiction

Summary
All Sadako wants to do is run. The books starts out as Sadako and her family are preparing to go to the Peace Day Celebration. Sadako is always in a hurry to get everywhere and she wants to do everything running. Her father wishes she would slow down and be respectful. Sadako doesn’t want to slow down especially when she finds out that she’s been chosen to represent the bamboo class on field day for the relay race. Her family is so proud of her and they all show up to support her on the big day. After the race was finished and her team won Sadako felt really dizzy. All winter long after she would go running the dizziness returned. She didn’t tell anyone including her best friend Chizuko. Sadako was worried that if something was wrong she wouldn’t be able to race in school the next year. The new year came in and Sadako felt that her wishing had worked because the dizziness was gone for a while. One day Sadako was running and she got really dizzy and fell to the ground. Sadako’s teacher was really worried and sent her brother home to get her father. Sadako was taken to the hospital where they x-rayed her chest and did tests on her blood. The doctors had bad news; Sadako had Leukemia. Sadako was told that she would have to stay in the hospital for a while but this made her sad because she knew she couldn’t run. Chizuko came to visit Sadako and brought her a gift. She folded a piece of gold paper into a crane and reminded her friend the story that if she made a thousand paper cranes her wish would be granted. Sadako believed in luck and decided this was a good idea. Her friend taught Sadako how to make the birds and she set to work. Sadako didn’t get better but she kept making the birds until the day when she died. Her class finished the remaining birds and she was buring with all of them. There are monuments dedicated to Sadako including one in the Peace Day Memorial.

Recommendation
I would recommend this to a class learning about WWII. It sheds light on the perspective of the innocent people who were effected by the war. Its after effects were almost worse than the initial drop.

Problems/Conflict
There is no shielding of the truth and horror that befell those people when the atom bomb was dropped. I don’t think this is a bad thing though.

My Reaction
I cried. This was such a sad book. I hoped that she would pull through and beat the cancer but that’s what makes the story that much more compelling I guess. She really believed that if she made those cranes her wish would have been granted. Hope can be the best healer sometimes. This is a touching story that has widened my eyes to the reality of what our atom bombs did to a nation.