Novel resonates with Cary fourth-graders

Cary fourth-graders, inspired by the story of a girl who lost her life to war, transformed their gym into a shrine to peace on Oct. 11.

Maplewood Elementary School hosted its 15th annual peace assembly, which was inspired by pupils' reading of the 1977 novel "Sadako and the Thousand Cranes" by Eleanor Coerr.

The assembly has become a school tradition for fourth-graders.

The novel is the story of Sadako Sasaki, a girl who survived the American bombing of Hiroshima in 1945 only to die of leukemia 10 years later at the age of 12.

In the months before her death, Sasaki began folding hundreds of origami cranes, following a Japanese saying that one who folded a thousand cranes would be granted long life and good health.

Sasaki died before reaching 1,000, but friends and family later completed the project.

The Maplewood assembly reflected this combination of hope and sadness.

Beneath hundreds of origami cranes suspended from the ceiling, fourth-graders sang songs for peace and lit lanterns inscribed with the names of dead friends and relatives.

Re-creating Sasaki's cranes taught its own lessons, said fourth-grade teacher Kathy Brandwein.

"The origami was very difficult for the kids at first," she said, "but now I can't get them to stop folding.

"They learned that when something is hard, they get a great pride out of doing it."

The assembly's central message of peace and tolerance resonated with children reading the story of a girl their age.

"It's really not about the war or the bomb," Brandwein said. "It's about a little girl who had something terrible happen to her, and how brave she was.

"The kids learn that war is bad, no matter what side you're on, but peace doesn't just happen."