Sadako

by Eleanor Coerr, Ed Young (Illustrator)

Overview

In this reinvention of Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes, images by Caldecott medalist Ed Young and new text by Eleanor Coerr come together to inspire children of all ages. 

In her novel Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes, Eleanor Coerr told the moving story of Sadako and her brave struggle against leukemia, the “atom-bomb disease,” which she developed when she was twelve, just ten years after the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.

The novel became a classic, and when Sadako’s story was to be made into a film, Caldecott medalist Ed Young was asked to do the illustrations. With love and commitment, he created nearly 300 hauntingly beautiful pastels which bring to life the spirit of Sadako, her courage and her strength.


"A masterful collaboration that will attract many new friends for Sadako."—School Library Journal

"Coerr's condensed text succeeds in retaining the simple lyricism of the original, allowing the leukemia-stricken Sadako to emerge as a quietly courageous girl."—Publishers Weekly

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780698115880
Publisher:	Penguin Young Readers Group
Publication date:	09/22/1997
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	48
Product dimensions:	8.00(w) x 10.00(h) x 0.16(d)
Lexile:	AD660L (what's this?)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Eleanor Coerr was born in Kamsack, Saskatchewan, Canada, and grew up in Saskatoon. Two of her favorite childhood hobbies were reading and making up stories. Her powerful novel, Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes, has been translated into many languages and has moved both children and adults to write plays, perform ballets, compose songs, and collect money for peace statues—all celebrating Sadako and her wish for peace. Eleanor has visited schools all around the world encouraging her audiences to work for a nonviolent world. Folded cranes are everywhere, and always underneath the statue of Sadako in Hiroshima's Peace Park.


Caldecott medalist Ed Young (edyoungart.com) was born in Tientsin, China, and brought up in Shanghai. He cites the philosophy of Chinese painting as an inspiration for much of his work. Mr. Young has been illustrating children's books for more than twenty years and has won many awards. He received the 1990 Caldecott Medal for his book Lon Po Po, and his much-lauded collaboration with anthologist Nancy Larrick, Cats Are Cats, was named one of the Ten Best Illustrated Books of 1988 by The New York Times. Mr. Young studied at the University of Illinois, the Art Center of Los Angeles, and Pratt Institute in New York City. He and his family live in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York.

Editorial Reviews

Praise for Sadako

★ "Coerr uses a quiet, unsentimental voice in her retelling, letting the content of the story speak for itself. And it does, powerfully. Young amplifies the story's vision with his impressionistic pastel artwork illustrating scene after scene with narrative simplicity and emotional depth. A remarkable, moving book." —Booklist (starred review)

★"A masterful collaboration that will attract many new friends for Sadako."—School Library Journal (starred review) 

"Coerr's condensed text succeeds in retaining the simple lyricism of the original, allowing the leukemia-stricken Sadako to emerge as a quietly courageous girl."—Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

An abridgement of the novel Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes combined with images from a film adaptation of the work yields a complex and somewhat abstract picture book. Using a sampling of the illustrations he created for the movie version, Young ( Seven Blind Mice ) subtly accentuates the poignancy of the story without rendering it sentimental. His ethereal pastels (reminiscent of his art in The Red Thread ) seem to convey the mood, rather than the actual activity, of the text. Sweeping panoramas alternate with wispy image fragments against ample white space: a face half-concealed, a shadow darting past. Coerr's condensed text succeeds in retaining the simple lyricism of the original, allowing the leukemia-stricken Sadako to emerge as a quietly courageous girl. Given the necessary length of the text, the mature subject matter and the sophisticated artwork, this book may find its most welcoming audience among older readers, especially those who enjoyed its original version as a novel. Ages 5-9. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Gr 2-6-This is the same story as the author's Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes (Putnam, 1977), told through an entirely new text. In this abbreviated version, the beautiful, limpid prose and crisp dialogue further telescope Sadako's fight with leukemia, ``the atom-bomb disease,'' adding greater impact to her death. What was an epilogue in the novel is here an integral, if anticlimactic, part of the text due to the exceptional flow of the illustrations. Young's pastels vividly capture all the moods of the narrative, place, and characters. The use of light, most obvious as Sadako lays dying, is particularly noteworthy, as is the crane motif as a recurring symbol of hope. A masterful collaboration that will attract many new friends for Sadako.-John Philbrook, San Francisco Public Library

School Library Journal