Eleanor Coerr (Author of Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes)

Eleanor Coerr鈥檚 Followers (47)

Eleanor Coerr

Born

in Kamsack, Saskatchewan, Canada

May 22, 1922

Died

November 22, 2010

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Eleanor Coerr was born in Kamsack, Saskatchewan, Canada, and grew up in Saskatoon. Two of her favorite childhood hobbies were reading and making up stories.

Her fascination with Japan began when she received a book called Little Pictures of Japan one Christmas. It showed children in beautiful kimonos playing games, chasing butterflies, and catching crickets. She pored over the colored illustrations, dreaming of one day joining those children in Japan. Her best friend in high school was a Japanese girl whose family introduced her to brush painting, eating with chopsticks, and origami. Eleanor's desire to visit that magical place never faded, and her well-thumbed copy of that favorite book is still in her library.

Eleanor began her professional Eleanor Coerr was born in Kamsack, Saskatchewan, Canada, and grew up in Saskatoon. Two of her favorite childhood hobbies were reading and making up stories.

Her fascination with Japan began when she received a book called Little Pictures of Japan one Christmas. It showed children in beautiful kimonos playing games, chasing butterflies, and catching crickets. She pored over the colored illustrations, dreaming of one day joining those children in Japan. Her best friend in high school was a Japanese girl whose family introduced her to brush painting, eating with chopsticks, and origami. Eleanor's desire to visit that magical place never faded, and her well-thumbed copy of that favorite book is still in her library.

Eleanor began her professional life as a newspaper reporter and editor of a column for children. Luckily, she traveled to Japan in 1949 as a writer for the Ottawa Journal, since none of the other staff wanted to go to a country that had been devastated by war. To learn Japanese, Eleanor lived on a farm near Yonago for about one year, absorbing the culture and enjoying rural celebrations. Soon she was able to visit nearby schools and speak to young audiences about her country. Eleanor wrote and illustrated Circus Day in Japan, using the farm family and a visit to the circus as models. It was published in Tokyo in 1953.

Her most difficult trip while she was in Japan was to Hiroshima. Eleanor was shocked by the horrible destruction and death caused by one atom bomb. Of course, she did not know Sadako Sasaki at that time, although she was living there with her family. The misery and suffering Eleanor witnessed was burned into her mind, and she hoped future world leaders would avoid wars at all costs.

One beautiful day in 1963, Eleanor revisited Hiroshima and saw the statue of Sadako in the Hiroshima Peace Park. Impressed by the stories she heard about Sadako's talent for running, courage when faced with cancer, and determination to fold one thousand paper cranes, Eleanor was inspired to find a copy of Kokeshi, Sadako's autobiography.

Eleanor looked everywhere she could think of and asked all of her Japanese friends to help. Since the school had copied the ninety-four pages and stapled them together, most of the books had fallen apart. Years passed, and Eleanor continued writing for newspapers in various countries and wrote more children's books. But she was always hoping to find Kokeshi.

One fateful afternoon, Eleanor was having tea with a missionary who had lived in Hiroshima all through the war.

"Eleanor," she said, "you should write a biography of Sadako Sasaki for American children to read."

"I would love to," said Eleanor, "but I must have Kokeshi to get all the true facts about Sadako."

The missionary took Eleanor to her attic. Lo and behold, at the bottom of an old trunk was an original copy of Kokeshi. Eleanor rushed to have it translated properly and began writing Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes as soon as she could.

"It's like magic. I was meant to write her story," Eleanor said. ...more

Combine Editions
Eleanor Coerr鈥檚 books

Average rating: 4.11 · 31,420 ratings · 2,534 reviews · 37 distinct works 鈥� Similar authors

	Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes by Eleanor Coerr, Ronald Himler (Illustrator) 4.14 avg rating — 28,742 ratings — published 1977 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Big Balloon Race, Level 3 by Eleanor Coerr, Carolyn Croll (Illustrator) 3.78 avg rating — 996 ratings — published 1981 — 31 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Mieko and the Fifth Treasure 3.87 avg rating — 844 ratings — published 1993 — 14 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Josefina Story Quilt (I Can Read Level 3) by Eleanor Coerr, Bruce Degen (Illustrator) 3.96 avg rating — 432 ratings — published 1986 — 33 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Buffalo Bill and the Pony Express (I Can Read Level 3) by Eleanor Coerr, Don Bolognese (Illustrator) 3.94 avg rating — 185 ratings — published 1995 — 14 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Chang's Paper Pony (I Can Read Level 3) by Eleanor Coerr, Deborah Kogan Ray (Illustrator) 3.73 avg rating — 119 ratings — published 1988 — 13 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Circus Day in Japan: Bilingual English and Japanese Text by Eleanor Coerr, Yumi Matsunari (Translator) 3.26 avg rating — 42 ratings — published 2010 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	S Is for Silver: A Nevada Alphabet by Eleanor Coerr, Darcie Park (Illustrator) 3.18 avg rating — 28 ratings — published 2004 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Bell Ringer and the Pirates by Eleanor Coerr, Joan Sandin (Illustrator) 2.83 avg rating — 12 ratings — published 1983 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Twenty-Five Dragons by Eleanor Coerr, Joann Daley (Illustrator) 2.67 avg rating — 12 ratings — published 1971 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Eleanor Coerr…

Quotes by Eleanor Coerr (?)

“You are learning to accept things you cannot change. And most important, you are accepting yourself鈥攕cars and all.”
― Eleanor Coerr, Mieko and the Fifth Treasure

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“And he prayed that his family would be protected from the atom bomb disease called leukemia.”
― Eleanor Coerr, Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes

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Polls

November 2022 Short Story/Novella Poll

The Mark on the Wall by Virginia Woolf, 24 pages, 1917

38 votes, 26.8%

Sonnets from the Portuguese: A Celebration of Love by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, 65 pages, 1850

24 votes, 16.9%

The Machine Stops by E.M. Forster, 48 pages, 1909

23 votes, 16.2%

The Driver's Seat by Muriel Spark, 103 pages, 1970

18 votes, 12.7%

Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes by Eleanor Coerr, 80 pages, 1977

16 votes, 11.3%

Youth by Joseph Conrad, 30 pages, 1898

15 votes, 10.6%

The Blazing World by Margaret Cavendish, 96 page+-, 1666

8 votes, 5.6%

142 total votes

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Eleanor Coerr鈥檚 Followers (47)

Eleanor Coerr

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