Sachiko

A Robert F. Sibert Honor Book
A National Book Award Longlist Selection
Jane Addams Children's Book Award
Flora Stieglitz Straus Award
A Booklist Editor's Choice

“Magnetic and chilling in its simplicity.”—The New York Times Book Review

August 9, 1945, began like any other day for six-year-old Sachiko. Her country was at war; she didn't have enough to eat. At 11:01 a.m., she was playing outdoors with four other children. Moments later, those children were all dead. An atomic bomb had exploded just half a mile away.

In the days and months that followed, Sachiko lost family members, her hair fell out, she woke screaming in the night. When she was finally well enough to start school, other children bullied her. Through it all, she sought to understand what had happened, finding strength in the writings of Helen Keller, Gandhi, and Martin Luther King Jr.

Based on extensive interviews with Sachiko Yasui, Caren Stelson shares the true story of a young girl who survived the atomic bomb and chronicles her long journey to find peace. Sachiko offers readers a remarkable new perspective on the final moments of World War II—and their aftermath. The paperback edition includes an afterword with updates on Sachiko’s legacy.

Children's Book Committee at Bank Street College Best Children's Book of the Year - Outstanding Merit ILA Teacher's Choices NCSS/CBC Notable Social Studies Trade Book for Young People ALA Notable Children's Books Booklist Editor's Choice ALA-CBC Reading Beyond Jane Addams Children's Book Award Cybils Booklist Top 10 Diverse Nonfiction for Youth Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC) Choices

"[A] story of staggering hardship and extraordinary resolve. . . . Sachiko and her story . . . are an indelible force. Luminous, enduring, utterly necessary."—starred, Booklist

"This sensitive and well-crafted account of a Nagasaki bomb survivor is an essential addition to World War II biography collections for middle school students."—starred, School Library Journal

"[A] sensitively crafted account . . . [Yasui's] tragic tale is full of terror and despair, but hope and peace also loom large . . . . [T]his is a significant addition to the available material."—The Horn Book Magazine

"Sachiko's account [is] magnetic and chilling in its simplicity. . . . Stelson has created a book that is both personal and universal, both thoroughly researched and real."—The New York Times

"Author Caren Stelson tells Yasui's story with warmth, sympathy and the vivid details of Yasui's life before and after the bomb exploded. Filled with powerful archival images, the book also sensitively describes the historical context."—The Washington Post

"This powerful narrative account of one person finding her voice after insufferable trauma encapsulates a grim era in global history."—Publishers Weekly

"[V]ery few [books] focus on the hibakusha, survivors of the bombings, and this important biography notably fills that gap. . . . An important perspective."—Kirkus Reviews

Caren Stelson is an award-winning author of nonfiction books that focus on war and peace themes. She believes young readers want to know the truth about their world and how others find resilience and courage in difficult times. Her work includes Ezra Jack Keats Book Award winner A Bowl Full of Peace and Sachiko: A Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Survivor's Story, which was longlisted for a National Book Award and received a Sibert Honor Award, the Jane Addams Children's Book Award, and the Flora Stieglitz Straus Award. Caren and her husband, Kim, live in Minneapolis.

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