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On the Horizon
Goodreads Choice Award
Nominee for Readers' Favorite Poetry (2020)From Lois Lowry comes an account of the lives lost in two of WWII’s most infamous events: Pearl Harbor and Hiroshima. With black-and-white illustrations by 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 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. Composed of poems about individual sailors who lost their lives on the Arizona and about the citizens of Hiroshima who experienced unfathomable horror.
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 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. Composed of poems about individual sailors who lost their lives on the Arizona and about the citizens of Hiroshima who experienced unfathomable horror.
80 pages, Hardcover
First published April 7, 2020
94 people are currently reading
11818 people want to read
About the author
Lois Lowry
143 books22.8k followersTaken from Lowry's website:
"I’ve always felt that I was fortunate to have been born the middle child of three. My older sister, Helen, was very much like our mother: gentle, family-oriented, eager to please. Little brother Jon was the only boy and had interests that he shared with Dad; together they were always working on electric trains and erector sets; and later, when Jon was older, they always seemed to have their heads under the raised hood of a car. That left me in-between, and exactly where I wanted most to be: on my own. I was a solitary child who lived in the world of books and my own vivid imagination.
Because my father was a career military officer - an Army dentist - I lived all over the world. I was born in Hawaii, moved from there to New York, spent the years of World War II in my mother’s hometown: Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and from there went to Tokyo when I was eleven. High school was back in New York City, but by the time I went to college (Brown University in Rhode Island), my family was living in Washington, D.C.
I married young. I had just turned nineteen - just finished my sophomore year in college - when I married a Naval officer and continued the odyssey that military life requires. California. Connecticut (a daughter born there). Florida (a son). South Carolina. Finally Cambridge, Massachusetts, when my husband left the service and entered Harvard Law School (another daughter; another son) and then to Maine - by now with four children under the age of five in tow. My children grew up in Maine. So did I. I returned to college at the University of Southern Maine, got my degree, went to graduate school, and finally began to write professionally, the thing I had dreamed of doing since those childhood years when I had endlessly scribbled stories and poems in notebooks.
After my marriage ended in 1977, when I was forty, I settled into the life I have lived ever since. Today I am back in Cambridge, Massachusetts, living and writing in a house dominated by a very shaggy Tibetan Terrier named Bandit. For a change of scenery Martin and I spend time in Maine, where we have an old (it was built in 1768!) farmhouse on top of a hill. In Maine I garden, feed birds, entertain friends, and read...
My books have varied in content and style. Yet it seems that all of them deal, essentially, with the same general theme: the importance of human connections. A Summer to Die, my first book, was a highly fictionalized retelling of the early death of my sister, and of the effect of such a loss on a family. Number the Stars, set in a different culture and era, tells the same story: that of the role that we humans play in the lives of our fellow beings.
The Giver - and Gathering Blue, and the newest in the trilogy: Messenger - take place against the background of very different cultures and times. Though all three are broader in scope than my earlier books, they nonetheless speak to the same concern: the vital need of people to be aware of their interdependence, not only with each other, but with the world and its environment.
My older son was a fighter pilot in the United States Air Force. His death in the cockpit of a warplane tore away a piece of my world. But it left me, too, with a wish to honor him by joining the many others trying to find a way to end conflict on this very fragile earth.
I am a grandmother now. For my own grandchildren - and for all those of their generation - I try, through writing, to convey my passionate awareness that we live intertwined on this planet and that our future depends upon our caring more, and doing more, for one another."
"I’ve always felt that I was fortunate to have been born the middle child of three. My older sister, Helen, was very much like our mother: gentle, family-oriented, eager to please. Little brother Jon was the only boy and had interests that he shared with Dad; together they were always working on electric trains and erector sets; and later, when Jon was older, they always seemed to have their heads under the raised hood of a car. That left me in-between, and exactly where I wanted most to be: on my own. I was a solitary child who lived in the world of books and my own vivid imagination.
Because my father was a career military officer - an Army dentist - I lived all over the world. I was born in Hawaii, moved from there to New York, spent the years of World War II in my mother’s hometown: Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and from there went to Tokyo when I was eleven. High school was back in New York City, but by the time I went to college (Brown University in Rhode Island), my family was living in Washington, D.C.
I married young. I had just turned nineteen - just finished my sophomore year in college - when I married a Naval officer and continued the odyssey that military life requires. California. Connecticut (a daughter born there). Florida (a son). South Carolina. Finally Cambridge, Massachusetts, when my husband left the service and entered Harvard Law School (another daughter; another son) and then to Maine - by now with four children under the age of five in tow. My children grew up in Maine. So did I. I returned to college at the University of Southern Maine, got my degree, went to graduate school, and finally began to write professionally, the thing I had dreamed of doing since those childhood years when I had endlessly scribbled stories and poems in notebooks.
After my marriage ended in 1977, when I was forty, I settled into the life I have lived ever since. Today I am back in Cambridge, Massachusetts, living and writing in a house dominated by a very shaggy Tibetan Terrier named Bandit. For a change of scenery Martin and I spend time in Maine, where we have an old (it was built in 1768!) farmhouse on top of a hill. In Maine I garden, feed birds, entertain friends, and read...
My books have varied in content and style. Yet it seems that all of them deal, essentially, with the same general theme: the importance of human connections. A Summer to Die, my first book, was a highly fictionalized retelling of the early death of my sister, and of the effect of such a loss on a family. Number the Stars, set in a different culture and era, tells the same story: that of the role that we humans play in the lives of our fellow beings.
The Giver - and Gathering Blue, and the newest in the trilogy: Messenger - take place against the background of very different cultures and times. Though all three are broader in scope than my earlier books, they nonetheless speak to the same concern: the vital need of people to be aware of their interdependence, not only with each other, but with the world and its environment.
My older son was a fighter pilot in the United States Air Force. His death in the cockpit of a warplane tore away a piece of my world. But it left me, too, with a wish to honor him by joining the many others trying to find a way to end conflict on this very fragile earth.
I am a grandmother now. For my own grandchildren - and for all those of their generation - I try, through writing, to convey my passionate awareness that we live intertwined on this planet and that our future depends upon our caring more, and doing more, for one another."
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,017 reviews
March 14, 2020
Wow. Is there anything she can’t write? This was interesting, informative, and a lovely tribute. Writing this difficult subject in verse makes it approachable and incredibly unique. I slowly savored each section and ruminated over each one. This will be a fantastic tool for teachers as they teach this subject, or for a poetry unit. I absolutely loved this and found it fascinating. My thanks to the publisher for the advance reader in exchange for my honest review.
November 2, 2020
So beautiful and profound. This is truly a labor of love and it is evident that much soul searching and painstaking care has been taken in its creation, especially as a tribute for those lives lost as a result of the bombings of Pearl Harbor and Hiroshima and in acknowledging the part we play in the lives of others.
Indeed, Lois Lowry explains in a note at the end that it has taken years for her to create and complete this work, "to find some meaning in the way lives intersect - or how they fail to." She further explains how we can "honor the past by making silent promises to our fellow humans that we will work for a better and more peaceful future."
Indeed, Lois Lowry explains in a note at the end that it has taken years for her to create and complete this work, "to find some meaning in the way lives intersect - or how they fail to." She further explains how we can "honor the past by making silent promises to our fellow humans that we will work for a better and more peaceful future."
November 17, 2020
November is always the time of year where I commemorate the World Wars. This year is weird in many ways and it affected my plans. Nevertheless, I didn’t want this month to come and go without having done at least one little thing in memory of all those fallen and those terrible years, all in one century. And then, as if fate was pushing me in the right direction, I saw this book at the GR Choice Awards.
This is a poetry collection by the author most notably known for The Giver and just like that book of hers, this collection of poems is quite haunting. Yes, that should be expected since it is about WWII and Pearl Harbor but even taking that into account, the (true) stories told through the poems are … haunting (there is no word to better describe the feeling while reading and after closing this book).
Pearl Harbour was the attack by the Japanese military on the US naval installation that sunk ships, following which the US military dropped the A-bomb on Hiroshima. This book, I’m happy to report, doesn’t show just one side of the conflict, but both. Technically, it doesn’t show any side of any conflict - what it shows are people both on Hawai’i and in Hiroshima and it tells their stories and how they survived (and were forever changed by) or died in the events of those fateful days.
The book is therefore divided into 3 parts: On the Horizon, Another Horizon and Beyond the Horizons.
What made the writing so impactful and authentic, I think, was that the author herself was a child living on Hawai’i and in Japan. She thus has a feeling for both cultures and she did extensive research on the events addressed in her poems.
Accompanying the verses is art by Kenard Pak. Kept in black-and-white, the art (at least for me) showed that this is part of our history and a tragic part at that. But see for yourselves:
Personally, I loved the simplicity of the art that somehow underscored the tragedy.
I think I liked the most how the poems and the artwork emphasized the similarities more than the differences. It was therefore, surprisingly, also uplifting at times.
A very important piece about two of the most horrific events during WWII that connects the past with the future and war with peace.
This is a poetry collection by the author most notably known for The Giver and just like that book of hers, this collection of poems is quite haunting. Yes, that should be expected since it is about WWII and Pearl Harbor but even taking that into account, the (true) stories told through the poems are … haunting (there is no word to better describe the feeling while reading and after closing this book).
Pearl Harbour was the attack by the Japanese military on the US naval installation that sunk ships, following which the US military dropped the A-bomb on Hiroshima. This book, I’m happy to report, doesn’t show just one side of the conflict, but both. Technically, it doesn’t show any side of any conflict - what it shows are people both on Hawai’i and in Hiroshima and it tells their stories and how they survived (and were forever changed by) or died in the events of those fateful days.
The book is therefore divided into 3 parts: On the Horizon, Another Horizon and Beyond the Horizons.
What made the writing so impactful and authentic, I think, was that the author herself was a child living on Hawai’i and in Japan. She thus has a feeling for both cultures and she did extensive research on the events addressed in her poems.
Accompanying the verses is art by Kenard Pak. Kept in black-and-white, the art (at least for me) showed that this is part of our history and a tragic part at that. But see for yourselves:
Personally, I loved the simplicity of the art that somehow underscored the tragedy.
I think I liked the most how the poems and the artwork emphasized the similarities more than the differences. It was therefore, surprisingly, also uplifting at times.
A very important piece about two of the most horrific events during WWII that connects the past with the future and war with peace.
December 12, 2020
Pretty much the perfect companion piece to my last read, which was about the Manhattan Project and the decision-making process that ultimately led to the A-bomb being dropped on Hiroshima.
This one here is a book full of haunting poems that show the very personal fates of the people that died during the attacks on Pearl Harbor and on Hiroshima. And about those who survived them. The Hibakusha.
It pairs the poems with simple black-and-white illustrations, which works perfectly.
What makes this special is the author’s personal connection to the events. Lois Lowry was born in Honolulu in 1937 and lived in both Japan and the US. She has some interesting ties to the events at Pearl Harbor and in Hiroshima, which I won’t spoil here, because to discover them is very much part of the experience this book provides.
What will stay with me the most are her thoughts about how our lives intersect, with or without our knowledge.
We all breathe the same air.
This one here is a book full of haunting poems that show the very personal fates of the people that died during the attacks on Pearl Harbor and on Hiroshima. And about those who survived them. The Hibakusha.
It pairs the poems with simple black-and-white illustrations, which works perfectly.
What makes this special is the author’s personal connection to the events. Lois Lowry was born in Honolulu in 1937 and lived in both Japan and the US. She has some interesting ties to the events at Pearl Harbor and in Hiroshima, which I won’t spoil here, because to discover them is very much part of the experience this book provides.
What will stay with me the most are her thoughts about how our lives intersect, with or without our knowledge.
We all breathe the same air.
I was a child who played in the sand,
a little shovel in my hand;
I pranced and giggled. I was three.
The ship sailed past. I didn’t see.
I wonder, now that time’s gone by,
about that day: the sea, the sky …
the day I frolicked in the foam,
when Honolulu was my home.
I think back to that sunlit day
when I was young, and so were they.
If I had noticed? If I’d known?
Would each of us be less alone?
I’ve traveled many miles since then—
around the world, and back again;
I’ve learned that there will always be
things we miss, that we don’t see
on the horizon. Things beyond.
And yet there is a lasting bond
between us, linking each to each:
Boys on a ship. Child on a beach.
January 23, 2021
I'm not a huge poetry reader, but this was lovely. This slim book has two parts - Pearl Harbor and Hiroshima. The poems are the author's reflections and her childhood recollections of these two major events of WWII. I loved the unexpected connection at the end.
April 4, 2020
I'm grateful to the publisher and Libro.fm for allowing me the opportunity to listen to Lois Lowry read her newest memoir in verse. I am also looking forward to seeing the illustrations soon. Please, whenever possible, support local bookstores. Libro.fm allows one to do just that digitally for audiobooks. If you haven't seen their website, please check it out at libro.fm
Lowry's poems here are beautiful, absolutely beautiful. They are snapshots from World War Two that honor those we have lost in this world, both in America and Japan. They are moments Lois experienced living in Shibuya in Tokyo after the war, including an encounter with illustrator Allen Say, whom she would officially meet many years later.
Language, connection, and history are layered here in ways that are simply inspiring. Her afterword may have said it best when she said, "and to honor the past by making silent promises, to our fellow humans, that we will work for a better and more peaceful future."
As someone who called Japan home for four years of my life and who often returns to visit family in the summer, this book now has a special place in my heart.
Lowry's poems here are beautiful, absolutely beautiful. They are snapshots from World War Two that honor those we have lost in this world, both in America and Japan. They are moments Lois experienced living in Shibuya in Tokyo after the war, including an encounter with illustrator Allen Say, whom she would officially meet many years later.
Language, connection, and history are layered here in ways that are simply inspiring. Her afterword may have said it best when she said, "and to honor the past by making silent promises, to our fellow humans, that we will work for a better and more peaceful future."
As someone who called Japan home for four years of my life and who often returns to visit family in the summer, this book now has a special place in my heart.
June 3, 2022
Lovely, thoughtful memories of Lowry's experiences as a child, living in Hawaii at the time of the Pearl Harbor attack, and then later living in Japan during the rebuilding after the war. She tells her own story, and the stories of other children and young soldiers, in brief poems. The audiobook is read by her, so it really does feel like she's just reminiscing about what she remembers, the people she met then and afterward.
April 9, 2020
“I think back to that sunlit day
When I was young, and so were they.
If I had noticed? If I’d known?
Would each of us be less alone?
I’ve traveled many miles since then-
around the world, and back again;
I’ve learned that there will always be
things we miss, that we don’t see
on the horizon. Things beyond.
And yet there is a lasting bond
between us, linking each to each:
Boys on a ship. Child on a beach.”
This was extremely poignant and beautiful. I cried almost from start to finish. I really liked The Giver and other books by Lois Lowry and when I saw she had written something else, I immediately ordered it. I didn’t really know what to expect or what I was going to get and what I found is a beautiful collection of poems about the attack on Pearl Harbor and the bombs being dropped in Japan. She has amazing personal connections to both places. There are so few words and yet a powerful message about the connection of our lives to others. In her own words in the authors note, “to honor the past by making silent promises to our fellow humans that we will work for a better and more peaceful future.” I most definitely recommend this one to anyone and everyone!
When I was young, and so were they.
If I had noticed? If I’d known?
Would each of us be less alone?
I’ve traveled many miles since then-
around the world, and back again;
I’ve learned that there will always be
things we miss, that we don’t see
on the horizon. Things beyond.
And yet there is a lasting bond
between us, linking each to each:
Boys on a ship. Child on a beach.”
This was extremely poignant and beautiful. I cried almost from start to finish. I really liked The Giver and other books by Lois Lowry and when I saw she had written something else, I immediately ordered it. I didn’t really know what to expect or what I was going to get and what I found is a beautiful collection of poems about the attack on Pearl Harbor and the bombs being dropped in Japan. She has amazing personal connections to both places. There are so few words and yet a powerful message about the connection of our lives to others. In her own words in the authors note, “to honor the past by making silent promises to our fellow humans that we will work for a better and more peaceful future.” I most definitely recommend this one to anyone and everyone!
January 15, 2025
Second read (2025): just as powerful as the first read. Still got goosebumps. Incredibly moving.
(2020) This short book of poems was phenomenal. I was moved beyond measure by Lowry's experiences, stories and thoughts as she encountered both Pearl Harbor and the aftermath of Hiroshima as a young girl because of her dad's military position. Through this short book, she tried to make sense of both tragedies and ultimately came to the conclusion that both Americans and Japanese were afraid of each other, but with time, they could learn to trust each other again and be friends. Wow. What an amazing reconciliation that is and one we still experience and benefit from today.
Forgiveness is powerful.
P.S. Listen to the audiobook--it's read by Lois Lowry herself!
(2020) This short book of poems was phenomenal. I was moved beyond measure by Lowry's experiences, stories and thoughts as she encountered both Pearl Harbor and the aftermath of Hiroshima as a young girl because of her dad's military position. Through this short book, she tried to make sense of both tragedies and ultimately came to the conclusion that both Americans and Japanese were afraid of each other, but with time, they could learn to trust each other again and be friends. Wow. What an amazing reconciliation that is and one we still experience and benefit from today.
Forgiveness is powerful.
P.S. Listen to the audiobook--it's read by Lois Lowry herself!
November 30, 2020
TOMODACHI
triolet
We could not be friends. Not then. Not yet.
Until the cloud dispersed and cleared,
we needed time to mend, forget.
We could not be friends. Not then. Not yet.
Till years had passed, until we met
and understood the things we’d feared,
we could not be friends. Not then. Not yet.
Until the cloud dispersed and cleared.”
PS: Tomodachi (Tamodachi) is the Japanese word for friend(s). This collection of poems is a poetic tribute to those who lost their lives in the tragedies of Pearl Harbor and Hiroshima. When reading about something so destructive and gruesome, you can’t escape the melancholy, but at the same time, there is also so much beauty and depth in Lowry’s writing that makes you hopeful for a better and safer tomorrow.
4/5🌟.
triolet
We could not be friends. Not then. Not yet.
Until the cloud dispersed and cleared,
we needed time to mend, forget.
We could not be friends. Not then. Not yet.
Till years had passed, until we met
and understood the things we’d feared,
we could not be friends. Not then. Not yet.
Until the cloud dispersed and cleared.”
PS: Tomodachi (Tamodachi) is the Japanese word for friend(s). This collection of poems is a poetic tribute to those who lost their lives in the tragedies of Pearl Harbor and Hiroshima. When reading about something so destructive and gruesome, you can’t escape the melancholy, but at the same time, there is also so much beauty and depth in Lowry’s writing that makes you hopeful for a better and safer tomorrow.
4/5🌟.
November 14, 2020
They likened it, later,
because of its shape,
to a mushroom.
Think of mushrooms:
fragile,
ascending and unfurling
after a rain,
rising on ragged stems
through damp moss.
Think of this cloud:
savage,
ripping sky and earth
and future,
spawning death
with its spore.
because of its shape,
to a mushroom.
Think of mushrooms:
fragile,
ascending and unfurling
after a rain,
rising on ragged stems
through damp moss.
Think of this cloud:
savage,
ripping sky and earth
and future,
spawning death
with its spore.
March 26, 2025
4.5/5
Read by Lois Lowry, this collection of poetic verse details the atrocities that occurred at Pearl Harbor and Hiroshima in a format that’s easily accessible to young readers. It’s harrowing, impactful, and beautifully done.
Read by Lois Lowry, this collection of poetic verse details the atrocities that occurred at Pearl Harbor and Hiroshima in a format that’s easily accessible to young readers. It’s harrowing, impactful, and beautifully done.
January 8, 2021
Short, yet powerful. The story of Lowry being a young girl on the beach at the same time Pearl Harbor is in smoke is fascinating to me.
Popsugar Challenge 2021 - A book in a different format than what you normally read (ebook)
Popsugar Challenge 2021 - A book in a different format than what you normally read (ebook)
August 7, 2022
*Tribute to the Hiroshima/Nagasaki bombing (Aug 6, 1945–Aug 9, 1945)*
"On The Horizon" is a 80 page collection of Lowry's poetry that links the terror of the Pearl Harbor attack and the 1945 bombing of Hiroshima. The poems mostly revolve around innocent citizens from both the U.S.A and Japan sacrificed in war, and ultimately connects the two narrative threads to form a complete picture, highlighting the dreadful violence of war.
In the end, after listening to the audiobook narrated by the author, I decided to give this a 3.25, 3 because it was a solid poetry collection with occasional impactful moments, and an added 0.25 for Lowry's beautiful writing. Yet in that it discusses a theme of communion, a sense of unity and universal connection that will help humanity see beyond limited, constraining, dichotomous principles, this deserves attention.
So many wars, so many attacks have been unleashed in the past 2 years, including the Myanmar coup d'état(February 1, 2021-), the Taliban offensive(May 1, 2021 – Aug 15, 2021), the Russian invasion of Ukraine(February 24, 2022-), and China's recent mock invasion of Taiwan. It is critical that we return to history in such times of turbulence for guidance, that we remember what happened on 6th and 9th of August, 1945 in Hiroshima, and to every innocent soul lost in humanity's ugliest crime.
Above all we must remember:
We could not be friends, not then, not yet
Until the cloud dispersed and cleared
We needed time to mend, forget
We could not be friends, not then, not yet
Till years had passed
Until we met
And understood the things we feared
We could not be friends, not then, not yet
Until the clouds dispersed and cleared
"On The Horizon" is a 80 page collection of Lowry's poetry that links the terror of the Pearl Harbor attack and the 1945 bombing of Hiroshima. The poems mostly revolve around innocent citizens from both the U.S.A and Japan sacrificed in war, and ultimately connects the two narrative threads to form a complete picture, highlighting the dreadful violence of war.
In the end, after listening to the audiobook narrated by the author, I decided to give this a 3.25, 3 because it was a solid poetry collection with occasional impactful moments, and an added 0.25 for Lowry's beautiful writing. Yet in that it discusses a theme of communion, a sense of unity and universal connection that will help humanity see beyond limited, constraining, dichotomous principles, this deserves attention.
So many wars, so many attacks have been unleashed in the past 2 years, including the Myanmar coup d'état(February 1, 2021-), the Taliban offensive(May 1, 2021 – Aug 15, 2021), the Russian invasion of Ukraine(February 24, 2022-), and China's recent mock invasion of Taiwan. It is critical that we return to history in such times of turbulence for guidance, that we remember what happened on 6th and 9th of August, 1945 in Hiroshima, and to every innocent soul lost in humanity's ugliest crime.
Above all we must remember:
Black drops falling
From the cloud that appeared over the distant hill
Blossoming like strange new flowers in spring
June 1, 2020
In the 1980’s Lois Lowry was watching home movies of her young childhood on Honolulu with friends. During a video of a very young Lois playing on the beach they saw a ship in the background. It was the USS Arizona, on its way to its final berth. Shortly after the video was taken Pearl Harbor was bombed, and the Arizona was at the bottom of the harbor, taking some 1,700 sailors with it. This was the first event over the next decade that inspired reflections on history, memory, and connectivity, and ultimately resulted in this beautiful book.
On the Horizon is a collection of poems about loss, and grief, and healing, and remembering. It is a very quick read, but so moving. It makes the huge, tragic, historic events of the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the dropping of the atomic bomb approachable to young people. The incredible Ms. Lowry shows us that no matter who we are, a sailor on the Arizona, a boy whose family fled the destruction of Hiroshima, or a girl playing on a beach, these large world events connect us all through love, loss, and healing. In these days of pandemic and social unrest I don’t think she could have written a more beautiful of healing book. Highly recommend for all ages.
On the Horizon is a collection of poems about loss, and grief, and healing, and remembering. It is a very quick read, but so moving. It makes the huge, tragic, historic events of the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the dropping of the atomic bomb approachable to young people. The incredible Ms. Lowry shows us that no matter who we are, a sailor on the Arizona, a boy whose family fled the destruction of Hiroshima, or a girl playing on a beach, these large world events connect us all through love, loss, and healing. In these days of pandemic and social unrest I don’t think she could have written a more beautiful of healing book. Highly recommend for all ages.
February 11, 2024
I must buy a physical copy as this was quite beautiful. 5 ⭐
August 16, 2020
This is quite a sad but important story told in verse. The prose was beautiful of course, as Lois Lowry can really do no wrong in my opinion. I shed more than a few tears reading this one.
March 14, 2020
Lowry, people.
An absolutely poignant novel in verse (an exemplar for sure) that includes multiple illustrations (I'm reading a galley copy from Netgalley) incorporated into a story of herself as a child, a Japanese boy, and a third story woven in to connect it all that she shares about in her author's note. It's emotional and informative, sentimental and reverent. She has video of her playing on the beach in Hawaii and in the background, the USS Arizona. Then she meets a boy who was in a town riding a bike as the bomb was being dropped on Hiroshima-- they meet as adults. And then when Lowry brings her grandson to the Pearl Harbor memorial, a note from a grandson having never met his grandfather who died at Pearl Harbor.
The verse is sparing and heartfelt, introducing real people and real events which is why it's a strong nonfiction verse for a middle grade audience and up. (A quick read for older teens) but it's the years that Lowry has lived that lends itself to a reverential book like this. Stories like this won't age. And I'm here for more memoirs and biographies of the authors we love.
An absolutely poignant novel in verse (an exemplar for sure) that includes multiple illustrations (I'm reading a galley copy from Netgalley) incorporated into a story of herself as a child, a Japanese boy, and a third story woven in to connect it all that she shares about in her author's note. It's emotional and informative, sentimental and reverent. She has video of her playing on the beach in Hawaii and in the background, the USS Arizona. Then she meets a boy who was in a town riding a bike as the bomb was being dropped on Hiroshima-- they meet as adults. And then when Lowry brings her grandson to the Pearl Harbor memorial, a note from a grandson having never met his grandfather who died at Pearl Harbor.
The verse is sparing and heartfelt, introducing real people and real events which is why it's a strong nonfiction verse for a middle grade audience and up. (A quick read for older teens) but it's the years that Lowry has lived that lends itself to a reverential book like this. Stories like this won't age. And I'm here for more memoirs and biographies of the authors we love.
March 25, 2021
This was haunting and childlike and beautiful. All the reminders of war, and the bitterness of recovery, and the friendships in restoration told through poignant bits of poetry... this book has certainly left a lasting impact on me.
June 16, 2020
/3.5 stars/
Really liked it! Highly recommend for all ages. Clean.
Really liked it! Highly recommend for all ages. Clean.
July 1, 2020
Lowry has combined her own memories and historical research to movingly tell the story of the lives lost or forever altered by the tragedies of Pearl Harbor and Hiroshima. Lowry was born on Oahu in the 1930's. Her family moved around as a child including to Tokyo when she was 11, her father took a job as a teacher after the war. Watching home videos again as an adult with friends, a friend pointed out that the Arizona appears behind young Lois playing on the beach in 1940. A haunting realization knowing the fate that awaited so many on board.
Written in verse that is painful, haunting, and hopeful, On the Horizon emphasizes the need to bridge cultural divides, empathy, and understanding. The black and white illustrations by Kenard Pak are simple yet powerful.
"I guess the important thing is also the simplest: to acknowledge our connectedness on this earth ... and to honor the past by making silent promises to our fellow humans that we will work for a better and more peaceful future." - Lois Lowry
Written in verse that is painful, haunting, and hopeful, On the Horizon emphasizes the need to bridge cultural divides, empathy, and understanding. The black and white illustrations by Kenard Pak are simple yet powerful.
"I guess the important thing is also the simplest: to acknowledge our connectedness on this earth ... and to honor the past by making silent promises to our fellow humans that we will work for a better and more peaceful future." - Lois Lowry
April 29, 2020
Perfect for poetry month, this short but powerful book is an autobiographical tale of Lowry’s youngest years in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii right before the bombing. Intense, yet sensitive prose describing both the US and Japanese points of view.
June 1, 2020
Absolutely incredible. If you're looking for a very short and brief book that won't leave your mind and will also rip your heart apart, look no further.
Lois Lowry's writing is phenomenal. I wish it were a little longer since I completely lost myself in each of these stories. But there was something magical in the brevity as well. It hinted at the brevity of their passing as well, the brevity of time and life. They were gone before you got too attached, but you got attached anyway. The emotions matched the rhyming schemes as well.
I feel like this is the book I will be gifting to a special someone.
Lois Lowry's writing is phenomenal. I wish it were a little longer since I completely lost myself in each of these stories. But there was something magical in the brevity as well. It hinted at the brevity of their passing as well, the brevity of time and life. They were gone before you got too attached, but you got attached anyway. The emotions matched the rhyming schemes as well.
I feel like this is the book I will be gifting to a special someone.
March 17, 2021
Such a beautiful book.
September 10, 2024
Short book in verse about Pearl Harbor and Hiroshima that packs a punch without being too graphic for children. When I talk about these events with my children, I’ll definitely get this for them to read. I like how personal the author made it. It was so well done.
April 11, 2020
Imagine looking at old family home movies and discovering something in the background that suddenly jolts memory and reflection. Well, that is exactly what happened to Lois Lowry when she had some of her family's old home movies restored and realized as a young child playing on Waikiki beach with her grandmother in 1940, her father's camera had also captured the USS Arizona in the distance heading to its berth in Pearl Harbor:
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.
It is only as an adult, Lowry says in her Author's Note, while showing the restored films to friends, that the USS Arizona is finally seen. As you probably already know, it sank when Pearl Harbor was attacked on December 7, 1941, and most of the sailors onboard were killed - among them, twin brothers, members of the ship's band, two brothers, one a survivor, one not but reunited years later in death.
From 1941, Lowry jumps to August 6, 1945 and the bombing of Hiroshima, and again highlighting individuals who were there - among them, a young boy named Koichi Seii, who would later become known as Allen Say, a child pulled from the rubble and reunited with his father, teenage girls running the trams, and a little boy on a red tricycle.
Hiroshima:
The cloud appeared over the distant hill,
blossoming like strange new flowers in spring,
opening, growing. But the world was still.
When the cloud appeared over the distant hill,
silence has fallen. There were no sounds until
rain came. Not true rain, but black drops falling
from the cloud that appeared over a distant hill,
blossoming like strange new flowers in spring.
On the Horizon is written in three parts- the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the bombing of Hiroshima, and the Lowry family's life in post-war Japan - and uses a variety of poetic forms. One of the things that she has accomplished is to show the randomness of war - especially who lives and who dies (a randomness we are witnessing again as the Coronavirus chooses its victims). It is perhaps one of the most affecting books I have read about WWII, and I found often myself tearing up as I read. I believe it is because of the way Lowry has brought the distant near. In this slender book of poems, she shows us that sometimes history can feel like one is looking at something far away on a misty horizon, but by giving face and voice to those who were there she brings it to the forefront, and history becomes closer, people become individual human beings. This is a book of poems I believe I will be returning to again and again.
Kenard Pak's black and while pencil and digital illustrations are a perfect compliment to each one of the poems.
You can find a useful Teacher's Guide HERE
This book is recommended for readers age 10+
This book was a EARC gratefully received from NetGalley
This is one of my favorite poems from On the Horizon. It is called Solace
The hospital ships had names that spoke of need:
Comfort
Hope
Solace
Mercy
Refuge
The carried the wounded and ill.
That morning, Solace was moored near the Arizona.
She sent her launches and stretchers across.
The harbor has a film of burning oil.
Scorched men were pulled one by one from the flames
and taken to Solace.
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.
It is only as an adult, Lowry says in her Author's Note, while showing the restored films to friends, that the USS Arizona is finally seen. As you probably already know, it sank when Pearl Harbor was attacked on December 7, 1941, and most of the sailors onboard were killed - among them, twin brothers, members of the ship's band, two brothers, one a survivor, one not but reunited years later in death.
From 1941, Lowry jumps to August 6, 1945 and the bombing of Hiroshima, and again highlighting individuals who were there - among them, a young boy named Koichi Seii, who would later become known as Allen Say, a child pulled from the rubble and reunited with his father, teenage girls running the trams, and a little boy on a red tricycle.
Hiroshima:
The cloud appeared over the distant hill,
blossoming like strange new flowers in spring,
opening, growing. But the world was still.
When the cloud appeared over the distant hill,
silence has fallen. There were no sounds until
rain came. Not true rain, but black drops falling
from the cloud that appeared over a distant hill,
blossoming like strange new flowers in spring.
On the Horizon is written in three parts- the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the bombing of Hiroshima, and the Lowry family's life in post-war Japan - and uses a variety of poetic forms. One of the things that she has accomplished is to show the randomness of war - especially who lives and who dies (a randomness we are witnessing again as the Coronavirus chooses its victims). It is perhaps one of the most affecting books I have read about WWII, and I found often myself tearing up as I read. I believe it is because of the way Lowry has brought the distant near. In this slender book of poems, she shows us that sometimes history can feel like one is looking at something far away on a misty horizon, but by giving face and voice to those who were there she brings it to the forefront, and history becomes closer, people become individual human beings. This is a book of poems I believe I will be returning to again and again.
Kenard Pak's black and while pencil and digital illustrations are a perfect compliment to each one of the poems.
You can find a useful Teacher's Guide HERE
This book is recommended for readers age 10+
This book was a EARC gratefully received from NetGalley
This is one of my favorite poems from On the Horizon. It is called Solace
The hospital ships had names that spoke of need:
Comfort
Hope
Solace
Mercy
Refuge
The carried the wounded and ill.
That morning, Solace was moored near the Arizona.
She sent her launches and stretchers across.
The harbor has a film of burning oil.
Scorched men were pulled one by one from the flames
and taken to Solace.
April 27, 2022
Let me dry my tears! Lois Lowry attaches human emotion to the tragic events of WWII’s Pearl Harbor and Hiroshima in the most respectful manner. Her personal connection to both places is haunting and surreal, too. This short poetry collection is profound; it illustrates in words and pictures the lives lost and/or affected by those losses in a gentle and compassionate way. It is perfect for young readers, adults, classrooms, and kitchen tables. Let us never forget! 4+ heartfelt stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
March 13, 2022
This is a beautiful, sensitive book that will do much to help children think of other people as individuals on either side of war. Lowry's unique perspective on this particular piece of history (Attack on Pearl Harbor/bombing of Hiroshima) brought it vividly to life through the eyes of a child. I also enjoyed the author's note at the end; such a fascinating coincidence!
February 22, 2023
Great middle grade book about Pearl Harbor and the dropping of the atomic bomb.
April 20, 2023
Haunting, poignantly illustrated. Such a small book holding so much history, humanity and inhumanity.
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