Hiroshima by Laurence Yep

Hiroshima, Laurence Yep, Scholastic Inc., 1995

Hiroshima is a fifty-page novella that explains the events of the bombing of Hiroshima very simply.  Sachi is a twelve-year-old Japanese girl who is severely burned in the attacks.  She loses both her father and her older sister in the bombing and she is left horribly disfigured.  Later, Sachi is taken to the United States for free reconstructive surgery. 

While the novella follows the story of Sachi, it also describes the events of the bombing in a way that is very understandable for young readers.  Yep describes how atom bombs work and what the effects of radiation are.  The book doesn't bash Americans, but it does show the events as truly horrible.  Yep talks about the pain that the Japanese faced and also the guilt that the American bombers felt.  The novella makes it clear that the bombing of Hiroshima was a lose-lose situation.

I would definitely use this book in my classroom.  It's only fifty pages and very easy to understand.  I think this book would work well in literature circles because there are a lot of important themes and vocabulary words.  This book does a great job of explaining the events of Hiroshima without taking a side.  The book simply tries to make readers aware of how terrible atom bombs are.