Hiroshima

The uncomplicated prose and vocabulary of this book belies the impact of the story and the emotion that it stirs. Yep uses simple words to describe this horrific event in World History. He doesn’t avoid the hard truths. He explains radiation and its effect on the human body. He speaks of the flames that consumed the acid rain that fell, the piled bodies of the dead, the loss, the horror, the death. The story starts with a fictional girl, Sachi, who is pulled from the real experience of several women. The reader walks with her, through her day, through the fire, the burning rain, the loss of her father and sister, and her eventual travel to the US as one of the Hiroshima Maidens.
This is not a book for a faint-hearted child, but it is show more intended to child. The language is directed at elementary-age reader. This is a profound work, and worth reading. It is a necessary addition to a home-school library, and excellent as an introduction to this event in history. show less

Very short, but long enough to horrify even me, a survivor of the Cold War and the nuclear arms race. I learned details I did not know; the most interesting ones were about life in Japan before the bombing. Includes note and extensive bibliography.

Do note that it was written in 1995 so when the author says that people are still dying "even today" that is dated information. A good class project would be to research what has happened since the book was written.

The text is simple enough for young children to read. Only you can decide if your child is ready for it, though. Of course, ideally you'll read it with them, sooner rather than later, so they know what horrible things people are capable of.

I own a lot of Young Adult books. I began reading this Young Adult books because of a wonderful former member of the 75 Challenge Group of Library Thing.com. Sadly, now deceased Anita Famultsee's thread reflected a lot of this unknown to me genre.
She shared with me her love of books that taught her a lot and were excellently written.

Since that time in 2008 when the group began, I've collected man books that Anita recommended. Then, through book sales and libraries, I purchased entire bookcases of YA. When Barnes and Noble devoted an entire section to YA, I knew it was a genre containing many exciting, subject-drive books.

Hiroshima is a small book containing many facts about the horror that occurred to people living in Hiroshima, Japan show more the morning of August 6, 1945. As pilot Colonel Tibbets flew the B-29 heavily- laden plane carrying 4000 to 16,00O pounds of a specially developed bomb, he found a whole in the clouds wherein he could unleash a never-before detonated load of an atomic bomb. The target of land contained a heavily concentrated population.

Inside the bomb, one uranium atom hit another, and as the particles smash into more atoms, more continue to split. Never before was there an occurrence like this.

While other areas in Japan were previously bombed, this area was saved so scientists had a clear place to gauge the damage that would occur. However, they knew very little of the black rain that would fall like oil from the sky, and the power of nuclear fall out that burnt the skin off those exposed. There were approximately 320,000 people in Hiroshima that fatal morning.

In a flash, the buildings of wood and paper were immediately incinerated. The blinding light is stronger than the sun, with this is the sound of huge banging, a horrific wind as buildings, windows are leveled with the ground.

Told in simple terms, this is a book for young and older adults.

3.5 Stars show less

I don't know that I'd even call this as long as a novella; at under 5,000 words, it's officially a short story. Whatever it is, it's an identity crisis: part journalistic, part academic, part narrative, none of it blended particularly well. The writing, with its simple language and staccato sentences, is more reminiscent of picture books than the chapter book this wants to be. Not a strong offering to middle-school (or even upper-elementary) WWII lit; try Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes or Barefoot Gen instead.

I don't know if this is classified as fiction, really. It's like a research paper with a small amount of fiction, as there are two girls very briefly characterized who represent some of the children in Hiroshima at the time, but not enough to care about or become attached to them. The rest of it reads like a research paper. Full of interesting facts & details that one wouldn't get from their Social Studies textbook, this book is written in simple sentences at what seems like a 3rd grade level, even though it's labeled to be 4th grade. My son could easily understand this (grade 3). It's a perfect trade book to have in your classroom, grades 5-8. (I read the whole book in 20 minutes).

A fictionalized story of the Hiroshima disaster.

(4.3)