The Last Cherry Blossom

Every so often a middle grade book comes along that takes you by complete surprise. We live in an era in which books are all too often cheap paranormal romances and dime-a-dozen mental health awareness novels for teen readers. But sometimes an utterly amazing book kind of creeps up on you, one that has a combination of history, fiction, family and suspense, and The Last Cherry Blossom is undoubtedly it.

Thank you to the author for providing a copy of this book to #kidlitexchange for review purposes - all opinions are my own. I did already have a copy in my school library as well. Haunting and impeccably written for a middle grade audience, THE LAST CHERRY BLOSSOM is a required purchase for middle grade libraries and classrooms. This story follows 12-year-old Yuriko and her family in the time period surrounding and including the August 6, 1945 bombing of Hiroshima at the end of Word War II. In a [...]

A haunting tale for children about the bombing of Hiroshima. One that was put into writing in novel form by the author at the urging of all the teachers whose classrooms she visited to share her mother's story. The book is adapted from Kathleen's mother's life as a young girl living in Hiroshima. More than half of the book brings into her daily life. We become a 9 yr old girl with a family and friend and daily trials and pleasant things. Best of all, she has a devoted Papa who calls her Joya. Wo [...]

Kathleen Burkinshaw tells a powerful, heartbreaking, and deeply moving story about the devastating impact of nuclear war (and the senseless hatred that fuels it), all from the perspective of a twelve year-old girl growing up in Hiroshima in the final days of WWII. Without a doubt, this is one of the most important books I've read in a long time - I envision The Last Cherry Blossom finding space alongside books as crucial and needed as Anne Frank's The Diary of a Young Girl. Haunting and hopeful [...]

This book devastated me - What a beautiful, heartbreaking tale. Burkinshaw has given us an incredible account of a young girl's life in Hiroshima before and after the city was destroyed by an atomic bomb during WWII. Even more moving is to read the dedication and author note, telling us how the story is based on the author's mother's experiences. I missed my subway stop and cried publicly. I was completely engrossed - not only in the devastating effects of war on its civilians, but also Yuriko's [...]

The Last Cherry Blossom opens on our main character, Yuriko, hiding under a school desk, torn between the panic of another air raid and her desire to receive a grade on her thoroughly-researched family history project. These sorts of harrowing contrasts continue throughout the story, growing only more powerful as Kathleen Burkinshaw immerses us in the world of a 12-year old girl trying to live her life in Hiroshima during World War II, the year before the atomic bomb was dropped. Complicated fam [...]

What a beautiful book. When I began reading The Last Cherry Blossom, I wondered if I would feel a compulsion to read ahead to the event (the bombing of Hiroshima), as if that might be THE centerpiece of the book, but I was wrong. Instead, I found myself completely captivated by the central character, Yuriko, and her family and friends in the dying days of the war in Japan. Burkinshaw wisely begins the story well in advance of the destruction and vividly paints a world of honour, secrets, and the [...]

I was lucky to read an ARC of THE LAST CHERRY BLOSSOM.This book is timely and important. It is the story of Yuriko and her family who live in Hiroshima during World War II. It is beautifully written and the characters are a reminder that people are people--wherever they live, whatever side they are on. As this is the story of what happened in Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, the story is inevitably sad. But like the cherry blossoms that bloomed after the bombing, it is also a story of resilience and [...]

This book was amazing! It would definitely be one of my favorites. It is about a girl whose town is hit by the Hiroshima bombing. I liked this book because it was very unique in the time and setting. It also goes through every day events that happened to children and their feelings through everything they went through.

August 6, 2016 marks the 71st anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima, followed by the bombing of Nagasaki on August 9th. And by now, most readers are familiar with the story of Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes by Eleanor Coerr. Sadako's compelling story focuses on her illness 9 years after being exposed to the deadly radiation that resulted in the aftermath of the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima. However, we don't really learn much about what Japan was like during the war, before [...]

this book takes you through a lot of emotions as you experience events through the eyes of Yuriko, who lives in the shadow of a terrible war whose purpose she does not understand but whose effects she feels deeply nonetheless. it's a moving story of family secrets, love and loss, survival and hope.

Haunting. This is a story I know I will never forget. The unimaginable pain and anguish brought on by a nuclear bomb is unacceptable, just as the book states. Reading it in the political climate we live in right now is unsettling and leaves me feeling so very uncomfortable. However books like this are so important to read and raise awareness so history does not hopefully repeat itself.

Spoiler Alert!!Fears and MysteriesTwelve-year-old Yuriko has become accustomed to daily air raid drills and the sounds of American B-29's flying over Hiroshima. But even though the sounds are familiar, she is always worried: Will we actually get bombed? What if the school collapses? Will a desk actually protect me? Is my papa safe? How will I find him if a bomb hits us? (p. 2)With that foreboding introduction, the reader is propelled into Yuriko's world in 1944. Before Yuriko leaves school in th [...]

Review copy: Digital ARC The Last Cherry Blossom pulled me into the past and held me there from beginning to end. Yuriko and her family are living in wartime Japan and the author brings readers into their daily life. I thought that the book was mostly going to be about the bomb in Hiroshima, but the vast majority of the book is about life before the bomb. Readers get to see into the everyday activities and worries of children during the war. It was interesting to find out that in the media the g [...]

Have you ever read a book that guts you from beginning to end and then you try to write a review but you simply can’t get your thoughts in order? Well The Last Cherry Blossom by Kathleen Burkinshaw is that book. Told through the eyes of her mother as a young girl living in Japan during the WWII, Yuriko take us through her daily life. From the simple things in family life (such as her love/hate relationship with her annoying cousin Genji) to her love and devotion for her papa. We the readers ge [...]

The Last Cherry Blossom is a heart breaking tale about life for young Joya as World War II rages on around her (though it feels far away). They ration their food, give up their metals, and their kids are sent to war or to work in factories unless the are lucky enough to stay home. Through tough discoveries and major losses, Joya finds a way to push through, even though she didn’t really want to. My heart broke as this book showed me what young Joya went through, and it is very important that t [...]

E ARC from Edelweiss Above the Treeline For Yuriko (sometimes called Joya by her father), life in Hiroshima is fairly pleasant, even with the advent of WWII. When her aunt Kimiko and her obnoxious son Genji move in with her and the privations of war intensify, things are less pleasant. Still, both Kimiko and her father are planning to remarry, and there are plans to be made for the celebration, and family secrets are revealed. When the atomic bomb is dropped on Hiroshima, these secrets are of li [...]

Huge thank you to the publisher for sending me a copy of this book for reviewI did not intend to read this book on the anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing but sometimes things are just meant to be.This book made me cry. And it is one that I am putting on a shelf of books that I will give my niece when she's old enough to read and appreciate the message in this story.Burkinshaw bases this book off her own mother's experiences during WWII. This book is well done and perfect for readers of all age [...]

Before I go any further, let me state that this is an important book! The story of 12 year old, Yuriko, will touch you in ways you may not have thought possible. Set in Hiroshima, Japan before and after the dropping of the atomic bomb, this gut-wrenching story allows us to experience the war through the eyes of a little girl. Having been taught here in America that the Japanese were our enemy at that time, this story places a human face to warfare—a little girl, supposedly our foe, who had the [...]

THE LAST CHERRY BLOSSOM is a story that needs to be told. Of the other side of that infamous bomb. Children may have learned that it served to end the war. But have they ever truly empathized with the children living in Hiroshima when the bomb dropped? In this story, they can, through the eyes and life of twelve year-old Yuriko. We see how much she loves her Papa and her best friend, and how annoying she finds her cousin Genji. We live the air raids with her and travel to the country when Papa s [...]

The Last Cherry Blossom is the powerful story of Yuriko, a twelve-year-old girl in Hiroshima during World War II. Yuriko is not only dealing with upheaval due to the war, but also must cope with revelations and change in her own family prior to the bombing of her city. In this book, the author crafts a tale of friendship, love, loss and change, and seamlessly weaves in history and Japanese culture. The Last Cherry Blossom is emotionally moving and artfully told from a fresh perspective that is b [...]

THE LAST CHERRY BLOSSOM, sweeps us away to another time and place, the city of Hiroshima, Japan during WWII. The story unfolds through the eyes of twelve-year-old Yuriko, who lives with her beloved papa in a well-to-do household. We meet her best friend Machiko, and her annoying younger cousin, Genji. Life is good, but there is ever-present danger, made real by air raid sirens. And then the Americans drop the atomic bomb. The author's mother was a Hiroshima survivor and THE LAST CHERRY BLOSSOM i [...]

I had to finish the last chapter of The Last Cherry Blossom in the car before an appointment because I had to know the ending, and I know there are moments in this book, one particularly, that will stay for me for a long time. The Last Cherry Blossom is a deeply moving evocation of the last months of WW2 in Japan from a young girl's perspective: her friendships, her love for her father, the vicissitudes of family life and how all is lost in the bombing of Hiroshima. Based on Kathleen's mother's [...]

The Last Cherry Blossom is an affecting tale that's beautifully written and gracefully told. It's an incredible story that takes historical events and makes them personal for the reader. Through the eyes of Yuriko, we see her daily life in the days leading up to the bombing of Hiroshima. Family secrets cast a shadow as deep as the on-going war. Yuriko and her best friend have a delightful relationship. I also enjoyed the connection between Yuriko and her papa. They all share sweet moments that m [...]

An interesting, informative middle-grade novel about a 12 year old girl in Hiroshima before and after the atomic bomb is dropped. Nice glossary in the back of Japanese words used.

Love the cover!!

I am so happy that I stumbled upon this book. There are not that many books

Yuriko loves her father very much, and life is good in her Hiroshima home. While the country is at war, she and her family haven't experienced too deeply the effects of war. Still, Yuriko notes that things are changing at home as her father and her aunt plan a double wedding, and more and more young men head off to fight. But the human cost of war becomes clear to her when a popular neighbor boy dies while serving in the military. Most of the book leads up to the dropping of the atomic bomb on H [...]

This book is gripping and then devastating. A story of daily life during wartime from the perspective of a child and how it affects her neighborhood and neighbors. Then, that wartime becomes a horrifying nightmare brought home, to what had been home. "In our lives we must experience both beginnings as well as endings. It is like the season changing after the last cherry blossom falls.""How much time had passed? Was I dead? What had happened? Was it an earthquake?""As I looked around, the one wor [...]

The Last Cherry Blossom makes you change your emotions with just a flip of a page. This book is filled with twists and turns as it follows Yuriko on her journey to learn about herself and others. You accompany her throughout her journey and learn about family, love, and self-acceptance. You laugh, You Cry, and you gasp with astonishment.