Read your own Library Challenge!

This is the first installment of Read your own library Challenge.  That sounded like so much fun, so I signed up.   Then I went to my library and found....3 books to read. 

- One Thousand Paper Cranes

- Winesburg, Ohio

- Cold Sassy Tree

Most of these were leftovers from college!

That's it 3 books.  HMMMM...where did all of my unread books go?  I will have to put out an APB as soon as possible.  Anyway, in preparation for this challenge I read one of the three books.  So, for the next 2 months I will read one "old" book a month.  Hopefully, I will find my other books.  If not I can always raid my children's books!  On with the review:

One Thousand Paper Cranes

by Takayuki Ishii

Genre: children's,  age 10 and over, non fiction

Pages:97

Rating: ***

  I have had this book for years.  When I was a teacher I would have my students read an "easier" version.  Then we would make paper cranes.  I bought this version, but never got around to read it.

   One Thousand Paper Cranes, is the story of Sadako Sasaki and the effort to build the Children's Peace Statue in Japan.  The title comes from the myth that one who folds a thousand cranes, gets their wish.  The book covers a brief explanation of what the atomic bomb was and it's effects on people and objects when it hit.  Some of this may be difficult for a small child to read and understand, which is why I put the age at 10.  It will also bring some hard questions.  The book moves into the first hand accounts of the Sasaki family on the morning when the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.  If you have never read Japanese accounts of that day, this book is an easy one to start with.  Most of the book centers around 9 year old Sadako as she becomes ill, years after the bomb hit, and her struggle and eventual death.  There are photos of Sadako and letters from her and friends.  Lastly, the book follows the children of Sadako's school and their effort to build a monument for all the children who had died from Atomic Bomb Disease.

   I had difficulty rating this book.  It is a great book, very moving, and is still timely.  It is well written, if simplistic.  The topic is hard to read, especially with the first hand accounts of the time right after the drop of the bomb.  It is meant to persuade readers against the horrors of war and it does. 

- Caren