Sachiko: A Nagasaki Bomb Survivor's Story by Caren StelsonMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
The story of the Atomic Bomb is one that has not been told to children for a long time, so it was refreshing to see an updated book for today's youth. The story was easy to read, but as we get into Sachiko's adult life, the story is unremarkable, in part because Sachiko led an ordinary life. (Nothing wrong with that!), so the book became a little stale. I know this made the longlist for the 2016 National Book Awards, and there was a lot of great things in this book, but it loses it in the end. Mixing in MLK & Ghandi seemed a bit irrelevant, it wasn't like Sachiko became a crusader.
I'm still going to highly recommend this title to my students, because the beginning has a lot of moving material about the actual bombings. The historical information is invaluable. The photos were very well chosen as are the sidebars. But if students don't finish the book (after getting to Sachiko's early 20s) it won't be any great loss.
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