Description
NYPL Best Books of 2025 * 2025 EUREKA! Nonfiction Children’s Book Awards Gold Winner
Hiroshima survivor Setsuko Thurlow shares her memories of that horrific event and her resulting lifelong commitment to activism to ban nuclear arms.
When Setsuko Thurlow was thirteen, she witnessed one of history’s most horrific events. She experienced—and survived—the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in 1945. Since then, she has worked tirelessly to educate people about the catastrophe and to ensure that it never happens again. As a leading member of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), she gave the acceptance speech when the organization won the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize.
Never Silent recounts Setsuko’s earliest memories of her happy life in Hiroshima, followed by the devastating firsthand impact she witnesses after the dropping of the atomic bomb, and finally traces the steps she takes to rebuild a life in the aftermath of her experiences. With informational text scattered throughout the book to give historical context for the places and events, readers are given a full and profoundly affecting picture of what it was like after the bomb dropped, the struggle to return to normalcy, and the plea for activism to ban nuclear weapons.
*A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection
Author Bio
KATHY LOWINGER is the author of many award-winning children’s books, including What the Eagle Sees, Sky Wolf’s Call, Turtle Island and Ours to Tell. She lives in Toronto, Canada.
Prizes
- EUREKA! Nonfiction Children’s Book AwardWinner 2025
- Notable Social Studies Books ListWinner 2026
- Freeman Book AwardsCommended 2025
- New York Public Library’s Best BooksJoint winner 2025
Table of contents
A Message from Setsuko
The Before Time
Daughter of a Samurai
Everything Changes
War Comes to Japan
A Visit to Hiroshima
The World Goes to War, 1939–1945
Japan in World War II
Hardships of Daily Life
“The Most Terrible Bomb”
A Silent Flash
The Living and the Dead
The Days After
Surrender
Numb
Life Under Occupation
A New Kind of Weapon
Little Boy and Fat Man
“The Silence Lifts”
The Hibakusha
The Atomic Age Is Born
A New Focus
My Fight for Peace
Ban the Bomb!
A Call to Action
Appendix: Japan at War Timeline
Sources
Credits
Review Quotes
“At a time of ongoing threats of regional wars around the world, Never Silent could not be more relevant. It is a reminder that declaring war is easy, while fixing its aftermath can be near impossible.”
— Quill & Quire, 08/25“Eighty years after the bombing of Hiroshima, this book presents a sobering firsthand account of a devastating episode in human history and calls on readers to use their own voices to end nuclear warfare.”
“A moving and nuanced account of the impact of war—and an encouraging call to action.”
“A necessary and important eyewitness account.”
“NEVER SILENT gives us a unique perspective but also a comprehensive one by embedding it in the history of Hiroshima, World War II, and the peace movements against nuclear weaponry. It is a touching and enlightening read, and it is one we would be wise from which to learn.”
— CanLit for Little Canadians, 09/28/25