Chizuko’s gift
Chizuko was pleased with herself. “I’ve figured out a way for you to get well,” she said proudly. “Watch!” She cut a piece of gold paper into a large square. In a short time she had folded it over and over into a beautiful crane.
Sadako was puzzled. “But how can that paper bird make me well?”
“Don’t you remember that old story about the crane?” Chizuko asked. “It’s supposed to live for a thousand years. If a sick person folds one thousand paper cranes, the gods will grant her wish and make her healthy again.” She handed the crane to Sadako. “Here’s your first one.”
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“[The] story speaks directly to young readers of the tragedy of Sadako’s death and, in its simplicity, makes a universal statement for ‘peace in the world.’ ”
—The Horn Book
“The story is told tenderly but with neither a morbid nor a sentimental tone: it is direct and touching.”
—BCCB
