Another beautiful text by Lois Lowry.

Imagine, as reviewing childhood home videos, you happen upon American history happening in the background of your memory. This is the shock felt as Lowry came to realize her sunny day in Hawaii had the shadow of the Arizona gliding through on the horizon.

In our middle school unit, we explore the impact of WWII on world history and a variety of narratives shared. This has voices that have been missing from our curriculum--while we overview FDR's actions and Japanese incarceration, the addition of the contrast of Pearl Harbor survivors and casualties, the author's childhood reflections, and additionally the impact of Hiroshima on Japanese history. This poetry is haunting, beautiful, simplistic, and full of imagery. Thank you #NetGalley for letting me preview this text.

I received this ARC from the publisher through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed how this tale illustrated what many of us have thought about. What have I seen and missed? Who have I met before and didn’t know it at the time? This tale does such a beautiful job demonstrating how we can be connected to strangers. I think the most valuable part of this is the author’s note, and hope the publisher finds a way to highlight it, as I would hate for readers to skip it.

Lois Lowry's verse novel about this moment in time is beautiful, haunting, personal and heartbreaking.  Thank you netgalley for this arc in exchange for my honest opinion .  This is an important and beautiful story.

I would have loved to read this book but the pdf could not be opened, all I could see was page 7 of the book. I contacted NetGalley tech support who suggested reading the file on other devices, which I do not own.  NetGalley help said they would contact the publisher and get back to me. I'm giving this title 5 starts because, it's Lois Lowry after all, and she's an amazing writer. I admire her versatility (though I think I love her "dark" stories best like Autumn Street and Gossamer), her brevity (she can accomplish more in 120 pages than most authors in 300 pages) and that she never writes down to children. I had the honor of meeting her at ALA annual a few years ago and used that chance to ask her about the opening paragraph of Gossamer, saying that it really knocked me out. Ms. Lowry said that her husband read the book and thought it began too abruptly, so she added the opening paragraph. Those few sentences are atmospheric, ominous, and STILL knock me out every time I read them.

Thank you NetGalley and HMH Books for Young Readers for sharing this eARC in exchange for an honest review. 

I love Lois Lowry. She is such a wonderful author and one that writes stories that are guaranteed to draw you in and to make you think. This book does that and more. These poems will stay with me for a long time. I liked how she gave parts of her life and experiences in Hawaii during Pearl Harbor bombing and the experiences of others impacted by the war. She writes about soldiers and their families. She writes about families in Hiroshima and Nagasaki who were impacted by the atomic bomb. She talks about life after the war and closure. 

It’s a must read. Also-she narrates her own story in the audiobook! It is awesome as well.

Truly powerful and thought-provoking verse pieces about the lost lives of Pearl Harbor and Hiroshima bombings by an award-winner and household name. A short read, but impactful, especially with the interweaving of Lowry's personal connection to the events. In this work, she honors the lives of people lost on two sides of a once divided world. A must-read!

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:


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.

This book is beautiful. Written in prose, it outlines the stories of those who lost their lives in Pearl Harbor and Hiroshima, weaving beautifully with Lowrys own experience of growing up in Hawaii. This exquisite book brings humanity to history that many didn’t experience. It is rich and vibrant and beautiful and will stay with me for years to come.

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

A very interesting read regarding Pearl Harbor and Hiroshima told from a child's perspective. I liked how Lowry focused on some of the soldiers' lives before Pearl Harbor. It gives children something to connect to on an event that they might find hard to relate to as it occurred so long in the past.

It was also very moving to read how American and Japanese children felt in Japan after the bombing of Hiroshima. Kids just want to play with each other and be friends. Unfortunately, as adults, we prevent that from happening by teaching them discrimination from an early age.

The eeriest part of the book is reading about the hospital ships, Mercy and Comfort being used after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. These are two ships the United States is currently using during the pandemic of the Coronavirus. They are ships of pain and heartache once again helping our nation in our time of need.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Children's Book Group, through NetGalley. Any and all opinions expressed in the above review are entirely my own.

A very beautiful look at the lives effected by Pearl Harbor and Hiroshima.  Lowry takes us by the hand to show us what happens with war.  Lives are changed and destroyed, and some people never come back.  This is a sort of personal journey, as Lowry lived in Hawaii and could speak to her experience.  On the Horizon is a wonderful, short, and well-illustrated book that can really help highlight the problems with war, to young readers, and even those older.

On the Horizon publishes tomorrow, April 7..

5/5 Stars

This was a great sweet book.  Lois Lowry presented some interesting views of Pearl Harbor and the impact on a few places of the actions of a few.  Through poems and little short stories, I think this book was perfect for a young reader to see and learn about an interesting time in history and how some people survived some of the worst, horrific moments.  The book wasn't scary at all and instead presented the material with a soft hand.  I really enjoyed this one.

On The Horizon 
by Lois Lowry
The collection of WWII literature is vast. To venture into this category you have to have something very special and beautiful. Lois Lowry’s On The Horizon is very special and beautiful. Told in 3 parts you see how war ravages all sides through the eyes of the author as her autobiographical poetry takes you through her girlhood in Hawaii, Tokyo, and beyond.
As the years go by we are losing more and more of our first person voices from this time. While Lowry was a young girl during the attack at Pearl Harbor, she finds a connection to this event in an old photograph. The image of the USS Arizona on the horizon of her childhood memories shapes the theme of this brief but powerful look into history. 
What I think I loved the most was that this is not a typical one-sided look at the world at this time. While she spends a great deal of the book telling stories of names and faces from Pearl Harbor victims, she focuses too on the experience of a friend who was once a stranger in Japan. Koichi Seii, was eight years old when his family was displaced after the atomic bombing of their home town Hiroshima. He and Lowry lived in the same Japanese town after the war. Their brief encounter as children remembered in a meeting as adults. 
I highly recommend this book for middle and high school students. This will be a must add for any WWII unit. I can’t wait to see the final art.

Pure gold-written in verse Lois Lowry weaves together pieces of her childhood and the horrors of war from Pearl Harbor to Hiroshima. Be sure to read the author’s note in this one. I received a free digital ARC from NetGalley.

Absolutely beautiful! This will be a must read in history class.

Thank you to NetGalley for my advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This concise, heavily illustrated memoir in verse gives voice to many individuals, both victims and survivors, at the center of what are the two greatest American and Japanese horrors of World War II: the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the bombing of Hiroshima. Through these accounts, a mix of personal memories by the author and mini biographies, Lois Lowry illustrates the human cost of these events. She also conveys how, even though the Americans and Japanese who lived through these events were similar, mostly innocent people, there was still too much hurt between the countries for them to peacefully coexist for a long time. Sure to be popular given the author's fame; a great way to introduce middle-graders to both of these events. Ages 8+.

One of my most anticipated books of 2020, On The Horizon did not disappoint.  Beautiful, poignant, and with the mission to bring humanity to war, Lowry will move you to tears.

For mature young readers, this WW2 historical account covers both the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the atomic bomb at Hiroshima.

Find the complete review on our April 2020 New Releases-Book Buzzed article here:  https://theuncorkedlibrarian.com/april-2020-book-releases/.

What another amazing book by Lowry!  "Number the Stars" and "The Giver' are always favorites of mine and my students.  Her latest will prove no different.
Her account of Pearl Harbor, from someone who was actually there, will resonate with mature young readers.  The portrayal of loss,  so devastating to that age group, is so sensitively written.  She captures the ordinary people that youngsters can relate to and brings the event to life.  Her account of the Arizona, with its looming presence in the background, until that fateful day, adds to what occurred.
Her use of verse further enhances the story and the enormity of both events, Pearl Harbor and Hiroshima, will open their  to further learning.

This is a very quick read with beautiful imagery and historical interest blended with the author's personal experiences. As someone who is very familiar with the Children's Lit world I got excited when Lowry mentioned a boy in Japan who would grow up to change his name to Allen because I thought "I bet that's Allen Say." In the author's note she revealed it was! But you don't need to know that to enjoy the story. I was puzzled that some of the book was in rhyme and some wasn't, but I'm glad she didn't force it through the entire book. Really enjoyed this one.

I was given a free copy of this by @netgalley in exchange for my honest opinion. 
This was an amazing piece that was a mixture of the author's personal memories and poems about those that were lost in both the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the bombing of Hiroshima. It was a powerful presentation showing the faces of those who lost their lives in both of these horrific events. There was a lot of information I had never heard before, I would definitely recommend it when it is released on 7 April! 
#NetGalley #OnTheHorizon