The Peace Bell | 
| Author: Margi Preus
Creator: Hideko Takahashi
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)
Category: Book
List Price: $16.95
Buy New: $7.83
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Avg. Customer Rating:  2 reviews
Sales Rank: 577805
Media: Hardcover
Reading Level: Ages 4-8
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 32
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 10.1 x 7 x 0.5
ISBN: 0805078002
EAN: 9780805078008
ASIN: 0805078002
Publication Date: September 30, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
DIVDIVYuko#8217;s grandmother remembers that when she was a little girl many years ago in Japan, her town#8217;s beautiful temple bell was taken away to be used as scrap metal for the war effort. She thought she#8217;d never see it again. After the war the bell was brought to America by a U. S. Navy crew who found it abandoned in a Japanese shipyard. Most amazing of all, the bell was later returned to Japan as a gesture of friendship between the former warring countries. Told in evocative prose, this inspiring story based on the American-Japanese Friendship Peace Bell celebrates peace between nations./DIV/DIV
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| Customer Reviews:
 touching story January 8, 2009
An American girl repeats a story that her friend Yuko's grandmother tells them about the Peace Bell that rings in the town of Ohara, Japan. The grandmother describes lyrically how the sound of the bell rings over the town, "KA-DOON" but then World War Two begins, and the bell is donated to the government to be melted down into metal for the war effort. She describes how much she misses the bell and how she had become a mother with a young baby before the intact bell was returned to the town. "What a celebration there was when the bell came home! The bell was actually found some years after the war in Duluth, Minnesota and, when its origins were determined, it was returned to the people of Ohara. Although, this story about the grandmother is fictional, an author's note documents the facts about the real Ohara bell. In 1991, Isumi City, formerly Ohara, presented a replica of the bell to the town of Duluth, and the two towns now maintain a Sister City relationship. The acrylic paint illustrations are colorful and convey a realistic Japanese setting. This is a touching story for children, ages 5 and up.
 Sweet historical fiction picture book about Peace October 11, 2008
Told through the reflections of a Japanese grandmother, this sweet and spunky historical fiction tells the tale of an ancient brass temple bell. The grandmother recalls when she heard the bell in her childhood:"I loved the deep KA-DOON of an ancient temple bell. Its song was as gentle as cherry blossoms, as deep as the Bon Odori drum, and as round and full as the moon." She tells of the special New Year's Eve ringing of the bell - 108 times, "each toll chasing away one of the one hundred and eight worries of the world." Sometime during her pre-teen years, the bell is donated to the shipyards for melting down and making war materials, and the traditional ringing ceases. Years after World War II ends, the bell is discovered in Minnesota, where American sailors had taken it during the war. As a goodwill gesture, the city returns the bell and enshrines it. At the end of the story, the grandmother walks her granddaughter Yuko and her American friend Katie-chan (who happens to live in that Minnesota town where it was discovered) to the shrine of the bell where the two friends joyously ring it. br / The colorful acrylic illustrations are authentic and detailed, but simple enough to engage early readers, who might easily relate to the characters. br /Based on a true story of one of the thousands of Japanese temple bells that were lost during the war, this c.1686 bell was found in Duluth, MN (where the author also resides) and returned to the city of Ohara in 1954 and dubbed the "American-Japanese Friendship Peace Bell." The cities have forged a sister-city relationship, and, in 1991 Ohara (now called Isumi City) presented Duluth with a matching Peace Bell. br /This book could accompany classroom studies on Japan, peace, war, or music traditions. Many schools also have "peace pole" dedications and this book would be a wonderful read-aloud introduction to that activity
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