On the Horizon

By Lois Lowry and Kenard Pak

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.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Apr 7, 2020
• ISBN: 9780358129387

Lois Lowry

Lois Lowry is the author of more than forty books for children and young adults, including the New York Times bestselling Giver Quartet and the 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 Medal, and the Mark Twain Award. She received Newbery Medals for two of her novels, Number the Stars and The Giver.

Book preview

PART 1.

On the Horizon

On December 7, 1941, early on a Sunday morning, Japanese planes bombed Pearl Harbor, in Hawaii. Most of the United States Pacific Fleet was moored there. Tremendous damage was inflicted, and the battleship Arizona sank within minutes, with a loss of 1,177 men.

The bombing of Pearl Harbor that day was the beginning, for the United States, of World War II.

I was born in Honolulu in 1937. Years later, as I watched a home movie taken by my father in 1940, I realized that as I played on the beach at Waikiki, USS Arizona could be seen through mist in the background, on the horizon.

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.

Reviews for On the Horizon

[jennybeast · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

On the whole, I think this is a lovely little gem of a book, that explores some extraordinary connections in Lois Lowry's childhood.

I don't recommend starting with it as an audio book. While it is amazing to hear the book read by Lowry, I almost bailed out a couple of times in section 1 because I didn't understand where the book was going. It started to feel like a poetic tribute to each individual who died on the Arizona, and while that is moving and worthy, it also started to feel maudlin and sentimental. The second half of the book brings everything together and balances the experience of part 1. I think if I had a physical book to look at, I could have flipped through it a bit and understood what was happening.

I love the overall message. I think the connections are amazing. I think this is a great book to revisit a few times, and an effective way to help kids connect with the events of WWII. Sometimes that war feels fictional and far away -- this book reminds us that it is anything but.

Advanced Listening Copy provided by Libro.fm.

[lindamamak · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Lois Lowry, novel in verse is a stunning account of the lost lives of Pearl Hsrbor and Hiroshima

[lflareads · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

On the Horizon is a beautiful book written in verse. She honors those lost during the bombing of Pearl Harbor and lives changed forever as a result of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. She writes from her experience, as a young girl on the beach of Hawaii and time in Japan. Special tribute is given to those gone too soon. I highly recommend On the Horizon as an addition to classrooms, as students learn more about these events that changed the world. #NetGalley #onthehorizon #loislowry