Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes

Twelve-year-old Sadako Sasaki was the lively star of her school s 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 grand 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.