Yesterday Number 4 came home with the book Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes.
I guess her teacher gave it to her to read.
She was super excited to read it.
I’m not sure why, really…
It’s pretty sad, but I think she felt like it was more of a grown up book than she usually reads.
It kind of is.
I used to read it to my sixth graders in Pennsylvania.
I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of it, but it’s based on the true story of a little girl named Sadako Sasaki who was living in Hiroshima when the atom bomb was dropped. Ten years later, she was diagnosed with leukemia. A Japanese legend says that if a sick person folds 1,000 paper cranes, the gods will make her well again. Sadako folded over 600 cranes until she was too weak to make any more, and died shortly after that. After her death, her classmates folded the rest for her.
Number 4 finished the whole book yesterday afternoon.
I didn’t know if she had actually read it.
That is, until she came into the office and gave me the 7-year-old summary, which is pretty much retelling every single detail from beginning to end.
I was afraid she might be a little sad.
Not really.
Her overall thoughts on the book?
“Mom, Sadako died the best way there is to die…she fell asleep and she never woke up. She died peacefully in her sleep.
That’s much better than getting shot in the head.
You know…
Like Abraham Lincoln.”
Huh.
She appears to be unphased.
But if she comes home from school today with Old Yeller,
um,
I think that’s where I’m gonna have to draw the line.
Today’s post is sponsored by Macaroni Kid Brookfield – New Milford: Your resource for LOCAL family friendly events!
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Where the Red Fern Grows…
That one destroyed me as a child.
Has she discovered Babar? I remembered that as one of my favorite books growing up so bought it for my kids…it’s terrible…I cried, but my kids ask to read it constantly now…what does that mean!?