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From two-time Newbery medalist and living legend Lois Lowry comes a moving account of the lives lost in two of WWII’s most infamous events: Pearl Harbor and Hiroshima. With evocative black-and-white illustrations by SCBWI Golden Kite Award winner Kenard Pak.
Lois Lowry looks back at history through a personal lens as she draws from her own memories as a child in Hawaii and Japan, as well as from historical research, in this stunning work in verse for young readers.
On the Horizon tells the story of people whose lives were lost or forever altered by the twin tragedies of Pearl Harbor and Hiroshima. Based on the lives of soldiers at Pearl Harbor and civilians in Hiroshima, On the Horizon contemplates humanity and war through verse that sings with pain, truth, and the importance of bridging cultural divides. This masterful work emphasizes empathy and understanding in search of commonality and friendship, vital lessons for students as well as citizens of today’s world. Kenard Pak’s stunning illustrations depict real-life people, places, and events, making for an incredibly vivid return to our collective past.
In turns haunting, heartbreaking, and uplifting, On the Horizon will remind readers of the horrors and heroism in our past, as well as offer hope for our future.
Review
"Anchored by her musings, Lowry’s plaintive, compassionate memoir honors the legacy of those lost in the attack that precipitated the United States’ entry into World War II." — New York Times Book Review
"A slim volume that's packed with emotion." — Wall Street Journal
"Lois Lowry has had an impressive career. She’s written more than 40 books and won the Newbery Medal twice, but she's never written a story in verse until now." — NPR Weekend Edition
"[On the Horizon is] deeply felt and emotive, not about sides but about people, sure to lead readers to think deeply on these dual tragedies of war. A must for all collections." — Booklist (starred review)
"All the personal stories—of sailors, civilians, and Lowry herself—are grounding. Pak's graphite illustrations are like still shots of history, adding to the emotion and somber feeling. A beautiful, powerful reflection on a tragic history." — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"With vignettes about those who lost their lives—from sailors aboard the USS Arizona to civilians in Hiroshima—Lowry asks young readers to empathize with people on all sides of the conflict. Lowry’s message is simple: We all benefit from a more peaceful world." — Time for Kids
"On the Horizon’s remarkable poems are a powerful reminder of our shared humanity in times of conflict and war. Simply put, they are an extraordinary gift from one of America’s most distinguished writers." — BookPage
"Part memoir, part history, this is a powerful reminder that damage done will be remembered for many decades to come." — Publishers Weekly
"This series of beautiful, moving, and sometimes horrifying poems gives a voice to the young men on the USS Arizona and offers an equally moving tribute to the survivors of Hiroshima. Touching." — School Library Journal
“Entries are deft and compelling . . . and the experience of being an occupier in post-war Japan is a fraught and interesting one.” — Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books
About the Author
Lois Lowry is the author of more than forty books for children and young adults, including the New York Times bestselling Giver Quartet and popular Anastasia Krupnik series. She has received countless honors, among them the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, the Dorothy Canfield Fisher Award, the California Young Reader’s Medal, and the Mark Twain Award. She received Newbery Medals for two of her novels, Number the Stars and The Giver.
Ken Pak grew up in Baltimore and Howard County, Maryland. After studying at Syracuse University and California Institute of the Arts, he worked at Dreamworks Animation and Walt Disney Feature Animation. Visit his website at pandagun.com and on Twitter and Instagram @kenardpak.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
That Morning
They had named the battleships for states:
Arizona
Pennsylvania
West Virginia
Nevada
Oklahoma
Tennessee
California
Maryland
They called them “she”
as if they were women
(gray metal women),
and they were all there that morning
in what they called Battleship Row.
Their places
(the places of the gray metal women)
were called berths.
Arizona was at berth F-7.
On either side, her nurturing sisters:
Nevada
and Tennessee.
The sisters, wounded, survived.
But Arizona, her massive body sheared,
slipped down. She disappeared.
Rainbows
It was an island of rainbows.
My mother said that color arced across the sky
on the spring day when I was born.
On the island of rainbows,
my bare feet slipping in sand,
I learned to walk.
And to talk:
My Hawaiian nursemaid
taught me her words, with their soft vowels:
humuhumunukunukuapua`a
the name of a little fish!
It made me laugh, to say it.
We laughed together.
Anuenue meant “rainbow.”
Were there rainbows that morning?
I suppose there must have been:
bright colors, as the planes came in.
Aloha
My grandmother visited.
She had come by train across the broad land
from her home in Wisconsin, and then by ship.
We met her and heaped wreaths
of plumeria around her neck.
“Aloha,” we said to her.
Welcome. Hello.
I called her Nonny.
She took me down by the ocean.
The sea moved in a blue-green rhythm, soft against the sand.
We played there, she and I, with a small shovel,
and laughed when the breeze caught my bonnet
and lifted it from my blond hair.
We played and giggled: calm, serene.
And there behind us—slow, unseen—
Arizona, great gray tomb,
moved, majestic, toward her doom.
She Was There
We never saw the ship.
But she was there.
She was moving slowly
on the horizon, shrouded in the mist
that separated skies from seas
while we laughed, unknowing, in the breeze.
She carried more than
twelve hundred men
on deck, or working down below.
We didn’t look up. We didn’t know.
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- On The Horizon
On The Horizon
SIZE GUIDE
- ISBN: 9780358668077
- Author: Lois Lowry
- Publisher: Clarion Books
- Pages: 80
- Format: Paperback
Book Description
From two-time Newbery medalist and living legend Lois Lowry comes a moving account of the lives lost in two of WWII’s most infamous events: Pearl Harbor and Hiroshima. With evocative black-and-white illustrations by SCBWI Golden Kite Award winner Kenard Pak.
Lois Lowry looks back at history through a personal lens as she draws from her own memories as a child in Hawaii and Japan, as well as from historical research, in this stunning work in verse for young readers.
On the Horizon tells the story of people whose lives were lost or forever altered by the twin tragedies of Pearl Harbor and Hiroshima. Based on the lives of soldiers at Pearl Harbor and civilians in Hiroshima, On the Horizon contemplates humanity and war through verse that sings with pain, truth, and the importance of bridging cultural divides. This masterful work emphasizes empathy and understanding in search of commonality and friendship, vital lessons for students as well as citizens of today’s world. Kenard Pak’s stunning illustrations depict real-life people, places, and events, making for an incredibly vivid return to our collective past.
In turns haunting, heartbreaking, and uplifting, On the Horizon will remind readers of the horrors and heroism in our past, as well as offer hope for our future.
Review
"Anchored by her musings, Lowry’s plaintive, compassionate memoir honors the legacy of those lost in the attack that precipitated the United States’ entry into World War II." — New York Times Book Review
"A slim volume that's packed with emotion." — Wall Street Journal
"Lois Lowry has had an impressive career. She’s written more than 40 books and won the Newbery Medal twice, but she's never written a story in verse until now." — NPR Weekend Edition
"[On the Horizon is] deeply felt and emotive, not about sides but about people, sure to lead readers to think deeply on these dual tragedies of war. A must for all collections." — Booklist (starred review)
"All the personal stories—of sailors, civilians, and Lowry herself—are grounding. Pak's graphite illustrations are like still shots of history, adding to the emotion and somber feeling. A beautiful, powerful reflection on a tragic history." — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"With vignettes about those who lost their lives—from sailors aboard the USS Arizona to civilians in Hiroshima—Lowry asks young readers to empathize with people on all sides of the conflict. Lowry’s message is simple: We all benefit from a more peaceful world." — Time for Kids
"On the Horizon’s remarkable poems are a powerful reminder of our shared humanity in times of conflict and war. Simply put, they are an extraordinary gift from one of America’s most distinguished writers." — BookPage
"Part memoir, part history, this is a powerful reminder that damage done will be remembered for many decades to come." — Publishers Weekly
"This series of beautiful, moving, and sometimes horrifying poems gives a voice to the young men on the USS Arizona and offers an equally moving tribute to the survivors of Hiroshima. Touching." — School Library Journal
“Entries are deft and compelling . . . and the experience of being an occupier in post-war Japan is a fraught and interesting one.” — Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books
About the Author
Lois Lowry is the author of more than forty books for children and young adults, including the New York Times bestselling Giver Quartet and popular Anastasia Krupnik series. She has received countless honors, among them the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, the Dorothy Canfield Fisher Award, the California Young Reader’s Medal, and the Mark Twain Award. She received Newbery Medals for two of her novels, Number the Stars and The Giver.
Ken Pak grew up in Baltimore and Howard County, Maryland. After studying at Syracuse University and California Institute of the Arts, he worked at Dreamworks Animation and Walt Disney Feature Animation. Visit his website at pandagun.com and on Twitter and Instagram @kenardpak.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
That Morning
They had named the battleships for states:
Arizona
Pennsylvania
West Virginia
Nevada
Oklahoma
Tennessee
California
Maryland
They called them “she”
as if they were women
(gray metal women),
and they were all there that morning
in what they called Battleship Row.
Their places
(the places of the gray metal women)
were called berths.
Arizona was at berth F-7.
On either side, her nurturing sisters:
Nevada
and Tennessee.
The sisters, wounded, survived.
But Arizona, her massive body sheared,
slipped down. She disappeared.
Rainbows
It was an island of rainbows.
My mother said that color arced across the sky
on the spring day when I was born.
On the island of rainbows,
my bare feet slipping in sand,
I learned to walk.
And to talk:
My Hawaiian nursemaid
taught me her words, with their soft vowels:
humuhumunukunukuapua`a
the name of a little fish!
It made me laugh, to say it.
We laughed together.
Anuenue meant “rainbow.”
Were there rainbows that morning?
I suppose there must have been:
bright colors, as the planes came in.
Aloha
My grandmother visited.
She had come by train across the broad land
from her home in Wisconsin, and then by ship.
We met her and heaped wreaths
of plumeria around her neck.
“Aloha,” we said to her.
Welcome. Hello.
I called her Nonny.
She took me down by the ocean.
The sea moved in a blue-green rhythm, soft against the sand.
We played there, she and I, with a small shovel,
and laughed when the breeze caught my bonnet
and lifted it from my blond hair.
We played and giggled: calm, serene.
And there behind us—slow, unseen—
Arizona, great gray tomb,
moved, majestic, toward her doom.
She Was There
We never saw the ship.
But she was there.
She was moving slowly
on the horizon, shrouded in the mist
that separated skies from seas
while we laughed, unknowing, in the breeze.
She carried more than
twelve hundred men
on deck, or working down below.
We didn’t look up. We didn’t know.
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