Nozomi, 12, lives in Hiroshima, Japan, in 1970. At the annual memorial ceremony for victims of “the flash” (the atomic bomb), when lanterns carrying victims’ names are floated out to sea, she notices one of the lanterns her mom releases is nameless. In the coming days, Nozomi and her friends learn their art teacher, Mr. Yoshioka, lost his fiancée in the bombing; the only thing he found was a comb he’d once given her as a gift. The students decide to organize an art show, encouraging classmates to talk to a survivor and create a piece of art based on that person’s story. One of Nozomi’s friends talks to Mrs. Sudo, who lost her husband in battle and her little boy in the flash and regrets that the last words she spoke to her son were in anger. Another learns that his aunt, a young teacher, perished in the bombing along with six of her students, whom she was trying to protect. And Nozomi talks to her mom, learning more about her mother’s past and people she lost. Nozomi’s curiosity about her mother’s story and the experiences of others creates a sense of mystery and tension in this quiet and deeply affecting novel, while the heartrending stories of loss that emerge invite full-hearted compassion among Nozomi and her friends, who see for the first time the depth of grief carried by their elders. (Ages 9-13)