This fictionalized experience of a seven-year-old Hiroshima child and her mother was awarded a prize for excellence in Japan when it was published there in 1980. Stunning watercolor paintings on every page spread reinforce the colors of flames and debris and vividly heighten and expand the low-key text which incorporates what seventy-year-old Toshi Maruki remembers herself and has heard about the experience of others in 1945. The story ends years after the "Hiroshima Flash" with the words of the child's mother, "It can't happen again...if no one drops the bomb." Maruki's brief statement at the end of the story indicates her unequivocal advocacy of nuclear disarmament as well as her personal difficulty in completing a book which tells "young people about something very bad that happened, in the hope that their knowing will keep it from happening again." (9 years and older, or with an adult)

A seven-year-old Hiroshima child and her mother live through the bombing of the city in August of 1945. This fictionalized rendering of that fateful day incorporates what seventy-year-old Toshi Maruki remembers herself and has heard about the experience of others. Expressive watercolor paintings on every page reinforce the colors of flames and debris, vividly heightening and expanding the low-key text. The story ends years after the "Hiroshima Flash" with the words of the child's mother, "It can't happen again . . . if no one drops the bomb." Maruki's brief author's note indicates her unequivocal advocacy of nuclear disarmament as well as her personal difficulty in completing a book which tells "young people about something very bad that happened, in the hope that their knowing will keep it from happening again.´