Bianca with Kathleen Burkinshaw on The Last Cherry Blossom

In this episode, Kathleen Burkinshaw talks about her novel for
kids and teens, The Last Cherry Blossom. It's a devastatingly
beautiful story that reminds us that the people we think don't
belong, the people who seem different from ourselves, or the ones
we deem 'the enemy,' are not so different from us after all.


Kathleen Burkinshaw is a Japanese American author and the
daughter of a Hiroshima survivor. She wrote The Last Cherry
Blossom based on her own mother's story of growing up in
Hiroshima during World War II. It is through her mother's
twelve-year-old eyes that readers witness the atomic bombing
of  August 6, 1945. Kathleen lives with her husband and
daughter in  Charlotte, North Carolina.


Transcription:


You can read the transcription on The Children's Book Review.


Order copies:


The Last Cherry Blossom on Bookshop.org and Amazon.


Resources:


Learn more about Kathleen Burkinshaw's work at
https://kathleenburkinshaw.com/.


Discussion Topics:


The driving force behind sharing this story of the Hiroshima
atomic bomb with children and teens.

Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy and how Kathleen's diagnosis led
to hearing about her mother's experience living through the
bombing.

The writing process and an excerpt from The Last Cherry
Blossom.

Using The Last Cherry Blossom as a United Nations Office of
Disarmament Affairs Resource for Teachers and Students.

School visits with Kathleen Burkinshaw.

The promise of a sequel.

Kathleen Burkinshaw's hopes for the impact The Last Cherry
Blossom will have on readers.