BY LAURENCE YEP
NEW YORK: SCHOLASTIC PRESS, 1995
64 PAGES. PAPERBACK: ISBN 0-590-20833-0
Reviewed by Ann Tomlins
Most children in middle school expect one day to follow another in a steady advance of sameness. They make the transition from youth to adulthood in a relatively seamless transition. Carpools, homework, trips to the mall are the expected and predictable routine that fashion their lifestyle.
This was not so for the children of Hiroshima. On August 6, 1945, their youthful expectations were altered so drastically that not even the most discerning of historians might have predicted what was to happen. Laurence Yep has written a novella about how the atomic bomb suddenly changed the course of a young girl’s life. This horrific story is told with a clear and graceful cadence that allows us to see how her heroic acts of perseverance and forgiveness can be a symbol of hope for global peace.