Shin's Tricycle

Synopsis
This "picture book recounts the true story of a three-year-old boy killed by the atomic bomb at Hiroshima. When the bomb explodes, Shin is riding his brand-new tricycle; he dies after being buried beneath the rubble. Years later, Shin's family recovers the bike's remains, which are now preserved in the Hiroshima Peace Museum." (New Yorker) "Grades five to eight." (Booklist)

From the Critics
From Publisher's Weekly - Publishers Weekly  
Kodama, a native of Hiroshima who survived the 1945 atomic attack, relates a disturbing but undeniably powerful true account of one family's experience during that devastating explosion. The narrator is a father of three; as the bomb drops on the city, his three-year-old son, Shin, is riding his cherished tricycle. Barely alive and pinned under a house beam, Shin is still gripping his red handlebars. Unable to save their two daughters from the fires that erupt, the parents rush Shin to the river, but he dies that night. His parents bury the tricycle alongside him. Forty years later, while digging up their children's graves from the lawn to place their remains in a cemetery, they find the tricycle. It is put (and remains today) on display in Hiroshima's Peace Museum. The author doesn't cushion the horror in his tale, and certain passages-of burn victims screaming for water yet dying when they drank it; of Shin's father finding the ``little bones'' of his deceased daughters-are harsh fare for young readers. Similarly, several of Ando's illustrations-of Shin's father straining to lift the beam that trapped his child; the glaring, yellow flash of the explosion-are at least as frightening as they are effective. Despite the volume's picture-book format, age guidelines should be observed here. Ages 7-10. (Aug.)
 
From The New Yorker  
{This story} is moving, but the gruesome depictions of the explosion's aftermath are far too horrific for small children--particularly right before bedtime. The book was obviously designed for teachers to use as an introduction to lessons on the fiftieth anniversary of the dropping of the bomb, but unlessyou want to discuss with, say, your six-year-old Sally the wisdom of Truman'sdecision--with a sidebar on the strategies of containment tossed in--this book is totally inappropriate for its intended audience.
 
From Michelle H. Martin - Children's Literature  
In this gripping historical text, one Japanese father relates the horror of the day that the United States dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Shin, the narrator's 3-year-old son, longs for a tricycle, though in a war-ravaged nation in which even children's toys are melted down to make bombs, no such luxury exists. On August 5, 1944, however, Shin's uncle brings him a shiny red tricycle, much to the boy's delight. Soon after Shin and his best friend Kimi ride the new bike into the front yard, Tatsuharu hears an "explosion so terrible... I thought the world had ended." Though he pulls Kimi out of the rubble half alive, the father is helpless to save his other two children. Ten days before Kimi's fourth birthday, he dies in his father's arms. Today Kimi's red tricycle is displayed in the Peace Museum in Hiroshima to "help keep the dream of peace alive for children around the world." Skillfully depicting conflicting visual images between the bright-eyed, curious children and the devastation of war, this author and illustrator capture the innocence of childhood, the tragedy of atomic warfare and the necessity for world harmony.
 
From School Library Journal  
Gr 1-3In Hiroshima, in the summer of 1945, three-year-old Shin got the tricycle he wanted so badly. Then the atomic bomb was dropped. Still clutching a bit of the handlebars, the child was pulled from the rubble by his parents and died the next day. Years later, they decided to exhume his bones for proper burial and discovered the tricycle, which was placed in the Peace Museum. This simple tale, based on a true story, suffers from the fact that Shin's playmate and two sisters are given only peremptory characterization. Also, the writing style is rather monotonous. The oil paintings are mostly somber and moody, but effective. Shin himself, except when near death, is depicted more as a cartoon character than a real person. Collections that include Eleanor Coerr's Sadako (Putnam, 1993) or Toshi Maruki's Hiroshima No Pika (Lothrop, 1982) can pass on this offering.John Philbrook, San Francisco Public Library