BOOK GIVEAWAY: THE LAST CHERRY BLOSSOM

Congratulations to author Kathleen Burkinshaw on her new book THE LAST CHERRY BLOSSOM. She has agreed to participate in our book giveaways. All you have to do to get in the running is to leave a comment. Reblog, tweet, or talk about it on Facebook with a link and you will get additional chances to win. Just let me know the other things you did to share the good news, so I can put in the right amount of tickets in my basket for you. Check back to discover the winner.

BOOK DESCRIPTION:

Following the seventieth anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, this is a new, very personal story to join Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes.

Yuriko was happy growing up in Hiroshima when it was just her and Papa. But her aunt Kimiko and her cousin Genji are living with them now, and the family is only getting bigger with talk of a double marriage! And while things are changing at home, the world beyond their doors is even more unpredictable. World War II is coming to an end, and since the Japanese newspapers don’t report lost battles, the Japanese people are not entirely certain of where Japan stands. Yuriko is used to the sirens and the air-raid drills, but things start to feel more real when the neighbors who have left to fight stop coming home. When the bombs hit Hiroshima, it’s through Yuriko’s twelve-year-old eyes that we witness the devastation and horror.

This is a story that offers young readers insight into how children lived during the war, while also introducing them to Japanese culture. Based loosely on author Kathleen Burkinshaw’s mother’s firsthand experience surviving the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, The Last Cherry Blossom hopes to warn readers of the immense damage nuclear war can bring, while reminding them that the “enemy” in any war is often not so different from ourselves.

BOOK’S JOURNEY:

The Question That Began My Journey of The Last Cherry Blossom

I always enjoyed writing from the time I was old enough to write little poems for my home-made holiday cards. In school, I loved researching for reports, and blue book exams (Yes, I was one of those people).  But my college years and my career after college didn’t involve creative writing.

But, when my daughter was four-years-old I was diagnosed with Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy, a neurological, progressive, chronic pain disorder of the sympathetic nervous system. I had spent quite a bit of time in hospitals and my career as a health care executive ended. I returned to creative writing to write stories for my daughter and deal with this sudden life change.

However, The Last Cherry Blossom(TLCB) journey wouldn’t begin until nine years later when my daughter was in seventh grade.  She told me that her class would be ending their chapter on WWII that week, and she overheard some students saying they couldn’t wait to see that ‘cool picture of the mushroom cloud’. This is where the question came in- she asked me if I would talk to her class about the people under the famous mushroom cloud, people like her grandmother.

When I was younger, my mother told me about losing her family and home in Hiroshima.  But she had not given me any specific details of this event, because the memories were still too painful for her to discuss.

After my daughter’s request, my mother bravely decided she was ready to tell me more of what happened on the most horrific day of her life.  She hoped by sharing her experience with students who were around the same age she was at the time (12-years-old), they might relate to her story. As future voters, they’d realize that the use of nuclear weapons against any country or people, for any reason, is unacceptable.

The following year I was invited back and began presenting to other schools. Teachers began to include my presentation in their history curriculum and asked if there would be a book.

I had begun writing about the life of a 12-year-old girl in Hiroshima during the last year of WWII, based on events in my mother’s life.  I began what would turn into many, many hours researching what life was like in Hiroshima during WWII, as well as interviewing my mother. I wanted to give readers new insight into how the Japanese children lived during the war, the culture, and mindset.

I attended Society of Children Book Writers and Illustrators annual conferences since they were in the same city I lived in. In 2012, I submitted 20 pages for a critique with agent Anna Olswanger.  I wasn’t offered representation, but she gave me meticulous advice and suggestions.  Four months later I asked if she might read my revised version. We did many revisions over the next 7 months. But in September 2013, she offered me representation. Three months later she began submitting my manuscript. In November of 2014 I was offered a contract from Sky Pony Press!

It was bittersweet because my mother passed away two months later. However, she did get to see the contract and knew the book would be published. I’m grateful that she also had a chance to read one of the drafts of The Last Cherry Blossom.

That summer of 2015, my family visited Hiroshima to honor my mother at the Hiroshima National Peace Memorial Hall for Atomic Bomb Victims. Standing on the same ground where she experienced so much loss and destruction when she was only twelve-years-old, broke my heart.

I then had to throw myself into the first round of revisions with my editor. Throughout this process, I had to deal not only with grief, but with pain flare ups.  If it wasn’t for my husband, daughter, and friends’ help and encouragement I could not have made this journey.

There were many days when I felt that I couldn’t write a tweet, let alone a novel. But the thought of my mother’s strength to endure all she had lost on August 6^th, and still have so much love in her heart for my daughter and me; then I could create through my pain and write her story.

I hope that TLCB not only conveys the message that nuclear weapons should never be used again; but also reveals that the children in Japan had the same love for family, fear of what could happen to them, and hopes for peace as the Allied children had. I want the students to walk away knowing that the ones we may think are our “enemy” are not always so different from ourselves. A message that needs to be heard now more than ever.

KATHLEEN’S BIO:

Kathleen Burkinshaw is a Japanese American author residing in Charlotte, NC. She’s a wife, mom to a daughter in college, and owns a dog who is a kitchen ninja.  Kathleen enjoyed a 10+ year career in HealthCare Management unfortunately cut short by the onset of Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy (RSD). Writing gives her an outlet for her daily struggle with chronic pain. She has presented her mother’s experience in Hiroshima to middle schools for the past 6 years. She has carried her mother’s story in her heart and feels privileged to now share it with the world. Writing historical fiction also satisfies her obsessive love of researching anything and everything. The Last Cherry Blossom, is a SCBWI Crystal Kite Award Finalist (southeast region) and 2016 Scholastic WNDB Reading Club selection.

Thank you Kathleen for sharing your book and journey with us. It looks like a “must read” book.

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy