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Library | Call Number | Status |
|---|---|---|
Searching... Independence Public Library | J FICTION - COERR | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Monmouth Public Library | J Fic Coerr, E. 1993 | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
/Eleanor Coerr "The devastating effects of the bombing of Japan . . . are evoked here in the stirring story of Mieko, a gifted calligrapher and artist. After her hand is badly injured in the bombing . . . Mieko fears she has lost the fifth treasure, the 'beauty in the heart' which holds the key to her artwork. . . . a sensitively and beautifully crafted story . . . a vivid portrait of courage, drawn from a time tha
Author Notes
Eleanor Coerr was born in 1922 in Kamsack, Saskatchewan, Canada. Before becoming a children's book author, she was a newspaper reporter, an editor of a column for children, and taught children's literature at Monterey Peninsula College and creative writing at Chapman College in California. Her works include Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes, Mieko and the Fifth Treasure, Sadako, and The Big Balloon Race. She died on November 22, 2010 at the age of 88.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 3-5-- The four treasures of traditional East Asian calligraphy are brush, inkstick, inkstone, and paper. The ``fifth treasure,'' as Mieko's art teacher has told her, is beauty in the heart, which breathes life into writing word-pictures (characters). Mieko lived in a village outside Nagasaki when the atom bomb was dropped. Flying glass badly damaged her writing hand and now, a few months later, she has been sent to live with her grandparents. Ashamed of her scars and certain she has lost the fifth treasure, Mieko withdraws into herself, rejecting school and her grandparents' efforts to help her heal psychologically. It is the subtle, beneficial influence of her new friend, Yoshi, and her overbearing aunt that helps Mieko overcome her fears and start to face life again. The child's inner and outer conflicts are believably handled, and readers will identify with her struggle towards normalcy after trauma. Much of the plot is obvious, but satisfying. The meeting with Yoshi's aunt is especially heavy-handed. With the plot unfolding in the months immediately after surrender, with Tokyo in ashes, rationing for nearly a decade, the collapse of the economy, and U. S. occupation forces just settling in, the fact that she blithely orders (and receives) luxury writing paper is a strain on credibility. Otherwise, this is a warm, sensitive, and well-written story with wide appeal. --John Philbrook, San Francisco Public Library (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
The devastating effects of the bombing of Japan described in Coerr's Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes are evoked here in the stirring story of Mieko, a gifted calligrapher and artist. After her hand is badly injured in the bombing, the frightened and embittered girl is sent to stay with her grandparents in the country. Mieko fears she has lost the fifth treasure, the ``beauty in the heart'' which holds the key to her artwork. At her new school, she is taunted by some cruel classmates, and the anger she feels only deepens her sense of misery and loss. Eventually, she is lifted from her dark state by the patience and wisdom of her comforting grandparents and through the friendship of Yoshi, a gentle classmate. Mieko's recovery is further aided by Yoshi's Aunt Hisako, a stern but generous woman who goads Mieko into picking up her brushes once more. (Hisako's disappearance from the story proves mildly confusing, leaving her more of a device than a fleshed-out character.) Overall, this is a sensitively and beautifully crafted story that juxtaposes the strength of Japanese art and philosophy with the complex emotional wake of the bombing. Once again, this author has created a vivid portrait of courage, drawn from a time that deserves to be remembered. Ages 7-11. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
Injured during the bombing of Nagasaki, ten-year-old Mieko is sent to her grandparents' farm to recuperate. Despondent and self-conscious about her disfigured hand, Mieko is unable to paint word pictures -- her favorite, most treasured pastime. With the encouragement of her grandparents, her new friend Yoshi, outspoken Aunt Hisako, and the healing of time, Mieko overcomes her bitterness and enters the school calligraphy contest with renewed hope. The poignant story, simply told, brings the painful struggle to life. From HORN BOOK 1993, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
The Japanese calligrapher's ``four treasures'' are brush, paper, inkstick, and inkstone; the ``fifth'' is a beauty of heart informing the brushstrokes and bringing word-pictures to life. It is this that Mieko, at ten a talented student of the art, fears she has lost after her hand is injured in the atomic blast that destroyed Nagasaki. Bitterly ashamed of her disfigured hand (and soul), overwhelmed by homesickness (she's been sent to her grandparents in the country), Mieko is most despondent because she can no longer paint. In time, the encouragement of her elders--and especially of a gentle new friend--help draw her out of her pain and isolation and she begins to paint again. As in Coerr's well- loved biographical Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes (1977), the horrors of the bombing are not dwelt on here; again, the subtler underlying menace is a child's vulnerability to war. In contrast to Sadako's valiant, doomed struggle, Mieko's fictional experience is one of healing and renewed hope, expressed in the same quiet, economical prose. Since the stakes are not as high--Mieko is never in mortal danger--the story is less stirring. Still, this has its own message about the paradoxical fragility and resilience of the human spirit. Calligraphy by Cecil Yuehara not seen. (Fiction. 8- 11)
Booklist Review
Gr. 4-7. Mieko, a young Japanese girl, loves to paint and wants to be an artist when she grows up. Her art teacher has told her that she was born with "the fifth treasure," beauty of the heart, which flows into her hands and makes her drawings beautiful. But when the bomb drops on Nagasaki, her life is changed forever. A piece of glass cuts her hand, leaving a terrible scar, and suddenly Mieko is convinced that she will never paint again--that she has lost the fifth treasure forever. She is sent to her grandparents' house in the country to recuperate, but she can't get over her anger, sadness, and sense of loss. Other children tease her about her scar, and she withdraws further into her shell of self-pity. One day, she meets Yoshi, a girl her age. Yoshi is a good friend and eventually convinces Mieko not only to come back to school, but also to enter an art contest. With the encouragement of her friend, Mieko at last overcomes her unhappiness and even finds that her precious fifth treasure has come back. Set against the backdrop of postwar Japan, the story conveys a wonderfully delicate sense of Japanese people, customs, and beliefs. Coerr has created an intriguing and beautifully told tale whose strong message about friendship, self-confidence, and hope is inspiring without being smarmy. ~--Emily Melton
Table of Contents
| 1 Mieko | p. 9 |
| 2 Grandma's Home | p. 17 |
| 3 School | p. 23 |
| 4 Grandpa | p. 29 |
| 5 Waiting | p. 35 |
| 6 Yoshi | p. 42 |
| 7 The Contest | p. 47 |
| 8 Aunt Hisako | p. 53 |
| 9 Friendship | p. 61 |
| 10 Hope | p. 67 |
| 11 The Treasure | p. 72 |
| Author's Note | p. 79 |