It's a pretty standard story used in elementary curricula to talk about compassion and the random effects of violence. A little girl suffers from leukemia as a result of radiation exposure, and her friends spearhead a campaign to finish her project to make 1,000 origami cranes, which she dies before she can complete, as a memorial to her.

It doesn't have to be a book about wicked Americans. It can be a book about friendship, hope, and the Law of Unintended Consequences. It sounds as if your son's teacher needs to have a little conference with you and her administrator about personal politics in public school classrooms.

Also, and I know you didn't ask for my advice, but I would read that book myself and then talk with the boy about it. We have done that with curricular materials that we found objectionable. Believe me, we have ripped Karen Hesse's Phoenix Rising into ittybitty pieces. (Good fiction using bad science to make a political point.) Thus armed, our daughter went to school and did the same in the classroom, to the consternation of her teacher.

Also, I recommend you find yourself a copy of Mercedes and the Chocolate Pilot, to put a little different spin on American pilots and the times. Share that with him too. For extra credit: Stephen Ambrose's The Good Fight: How World War II Was Won.

The book about a serial killer... Would that be The Egypt Game? Read that too. It's really good. And it's not about a serial killer. It's about secrets, friendships, and assumptions.