Nominated for the 2021 CILIP Carnegie Medal, joint winner of the UKLA 11-14 Book Award 2021 and winner of the Warwickshire Schools Library Award. A Japanese teenager, Mizuki, is worried about her grandfather who is clearly desperately upset about something. He says that he has never got over something that happened in his past and gently Mizuki persuades him to tell her what it is. We are taken to 1945, Hiroshima, and Mizuki's grandfather as a teenage boy chatting at home with his friend Hiro. Moments later the horrific nuclear bomb is dropped on Hiroshima. What follows is a searing account of the blinding flash, the harrowing search for family and the devastation both human and physical. There is also the very moving and human story as the two teenage boys with great bravery search for and find Keiko, Hiro's five-year-old sister. But then Keiko is lost when Mizuki's grandfather has no option but to leave her in a safe place while he goes for help... Despite a desperate search in the aftermath of the bomb, where he leaves origami folded paper cranes for Keiko with his address on everywhere a survivor could be, he cannot find her... A powerful novel that, despite its harrowing subject matter, has hope at its heart

 

 

This book has been graded for interest at 14-18 years.

There are 304 pages in this book.

It is aimed at Young Adult readers. The term Young Adult (YA) is used for books which have the following characteristics: (1) aimed at ages 12-18 years, US grades 7-12, UK school years 8-15, (2) around 50-75k words long, (3) main character is aged 12-18 years, (4) topics include self-reflection, internal conflict vs external, analyzing life and its meaning, (5) point of view is often in the first person, and (6) swearing, violence, romance and sexuality are allowed.

This book was published in 2022 by Hot Key Books .

Kerry Drewery lives in Lincolnshire. Active in Bookstart and the winner of a BBC writing prize, she was inspired to research and write about Iraq by the questions of her own children about the war. Natsko Seki was born in 1976, grew up in Tokyo, studied illustration in Brighton, and made her way to London where she now lives and works. Inspired by architecture, vintage culture and fashion from different ages and cultures, Natsko creates vibrant cityscapes and enjoys applying her friends and family members into her illustrations by collaging photos from her old family albums and her own photographs.