Booklist, starred review
An extraordinary book, one no reader will fail to find compelling and unforgettable.

Book Description
Born in Hiroshima in 1943, Sadako was the star of her school’s running team, until the dizzy spells started and she was forced to face the hardest race of her life—the race against time.

Card catalog description
Hospitalized with the dreaded atom bomb disease, leukemia, a child in Hiroshima races against time to fold one thousand paper cranes to verify the legend that by doing so a sick person will become healthy.

From the Publisher
Chizuko came to visit her friend Sadako in the hospital. She had a piece of gold paper that she had cut into a large square."Watch!" she said, and she folded the paper over and over, and it turned into a beautiful crane."If a sick person folds one thousand paper cranes," Chizuko said, "the gods will grant her wish and make her well again."Sadako Sasaki was only twelve years old when she died. She was two when an atom bomb was dropped on the city of Hiroshima in Japan, where she lived with her family. Ten years later, she had leukemia as a result of radiation from the bomb.Sadako had folded six hundred and forty-four cranes. The flock hung above her bed on strings. Her classmates folded the rest.Today Sadako is a heroine to the children of Japan, who visit her memorial in Hiroshima Peace Park to leave the paper cranes they make in her honor.

ANNOTATION

Hospitalized with the dreaded atom bomb disease, leukemia, a child in Hiroshima races against time to fold one thousand paper cranes to verify the legend that by doing so a sick person will become healthy.

FROM THE PUBLISHER