Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes
by Eleanor Coerr
“Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes” by Eleanor Coerr. Published by Puffin. A poignant story based on true events of a young girl from Japan whose courage makes her live on in the hearts of people to this date.
Sadako Sasaki lived in Japan from 1943 to 1955. She was a lively and athletic girl who loved running. Her mother always said that she learned to run first before she could even walk :) The book starts in August of 1954 when she was eleven years old. She was a star of the school’s running team and aspired to get into the team in junior high school from the next year.
Sadako was in Hiroshima when the United States Air Force dropped the atom bomb to try and end WWII. Her parents always prayed that their family would be protected from the atom bomb disease aka leukaemia. But fate had something else in store for them. Sadako started having a series of dizzy spells which she ignored at first and hid from everyone thinking that it would all go away soon. But it was not to be that way. She had to face the hardest race of her life. The one against time. Sadako’s best friend Chizuko made a paper crane for her and told her an old story about how a thousand paper cranes were supposed to make the gods grant her a healthy life. This made Sadako embark on the quest of making paper cranes in the hope of becoming well again. Read the book to know the extraordinary story of the courageous Sadako and the reason behind why she is a heroine to the children of Japan to this day.
My eight year old son and I were moved by this compelling and poignant story. We just couldn’t let go of the book as it struck a personal chord with us. We have seen my dad go through his painful battle with Cancer last year and experienced grief first hand. We could imagine how Sadako’s family must have felt. He opened up to me about his sadness of losing his favourite companion. He felt that we should have tried making paper cranes too. In many ways, I found Sadako’s attitude and courage quite similar to my father. Apart from this personal connection, the story was a way to introduce the topic of the horrendous atom bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. My son hopes to visit the statue of Sadako in Hiroshima some day. We made an origami paper crane following the instructions at the end of the book. Sadako must have had immeasurable strength in her failing body to have been able to make hundreds of these cranes till her last breath. Thank you Vidya Mani of Funky Rainbow for recommending this beautiful book!
Recommended Age
The book is apt for children aged 8 and above.
Where to buy from?
An independent bookstore, Funky Rainbow, from where I buy many of my books.