The Complete Story of Sadako Sasaki: and the Thousand Paper Cranes

Age range 9 to 12

For the first time, middle readers can learn the complete story of the courageous girl whose life, which ended through the effects of war, inspired a worldwide call for peace.

In this book, Sadako’s older brother Masahiro tells her true story- how her courage throughout her illness inspired family and friends, and how Sadako became a symbol of all people, especially kids, who suffer from the impact of war. Her life and her death carry a message: we must have a wholehearted desire for peace and be willing to work together to achieve it.

Sadako Sasaki was two years old when the atomic bomb was dropped on her city of Hiroshima at the end of World War II. Ten years later, just as life was starting to feel almost normal again, this athletic and enthusiastic girl was fighting a war of a different kind.

One of many children affected by the bomb, she had contracted leukemia. Patient and determined, Sadako set herself the task of folding 1000 paper cranes in the hope that her wish to be made well again would be granted.