Twelve-year-old Sadako Sasaki was the lively star of her schools running team when the dizzy spells started. Soon gravely ill with leukaemia, an after-effect of the atom bomb that fell on her city when she was two years old, Sadako approached her illness as she did her running with irrepressible spirit. Recalling a Japanese legend, Sadako set to work folding paper cranes. For the legend holds that if a sick person folds on thousand cranes, the gods will grant her wish and make her healthy again.

Since its publication in 1977, this story of Sadako's spirit and bravery has become a modern classic and has been published to high acclaim all over the world.

About the Author

When Eleanor Coerr lived in Japan several years ago, she heard about Sadako and the thousand paper cranes from young friends in Hiroshima, and decided to write a book about the brave Japanese girl. The authors friends both in Japan and the United States helped search for more information about the Sasaki family.