“But that’s how life is, Yuriko-chan. In our lives we must experience both beginnings as well as endings. It is like the season changing after the last cherry blossom falls.”
This quote is from my MG historical fiction, The Last Cherry Blossom (Sky Pony Press), based on events in my mother’s life in Hiroshima during WWII and surviving the atomic bombing at 12-years-old. Yuriko’s (main character) Papa expressed the above sentiment to her, and it’s one of the reasons I chose my title. I thought of cherry blossoms 
scattering as they fall from branches. At first glance, one may think the beauty of the blossoms is lost, yet it’s just as lovely watching the fallen blossoms glide along with the river current or strewn along a walking path.
In the final chapter of The Last Cherry Blossom, Yuriko moves to Tokyo with a relative she barely knows (No spoilers, in case you haven’t read it yet) and must start a new life after the atomic bomb took away all that she knew or ever wanted. At that time, she wondered how she’d survive all these changes, never mind thinking something good could come from it all (I’m writing about how my mother dealt with these feelings in my current WIP) 😊. Yet, those horrific events eventually led her to meeting/marrying my father, moving to the U.S., and having me.
Interestingly, if I hadn’t been hospitalized for over a month from a near fatal blood clot, my Mom may not have shared her August 6th memories with me. The blood clot caused nerve damage and I spent months learning how to use my left leg again after being diagnosed with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome(CRPS). CRPS is a neurological pain disorder in which the autoimmune system attacks itself along with the sympathetic nervous system. Physicians have said it’s possibly a result of the radiation my mom was exposed to, which weakened my immune system.
After my hospitalization, I needed help to care for myself and my then 4-year-old daughter while my husband worked during the day. My parents helped me with that. During that time, my mother began revealing what happened on August 6th. A momentous occasion because she hadn’t discussed her experience of the atomic bombing with anyone. In fact, I was nine-years-old when she first told me she was born in Hiroshima, not Tokyo. And when she told me, it was still too painful to discuss it further. She also asked me not to tell anyone. Twenty-two years later, she released these painful, horrific memories with each passing day of my recovery.
At first, I had thought it was cathartic for her to finally be able to say it out loud, cry, be angry and unburden all that simmered within her for over 40 years. I’m a fixer by nature and felt that I could be useful again by being there for her. But as the days turned to weeks and another hospitalization, I sank deeper into depression because CRPS took away the person I used to be. However, my mother helped me to realize that even though she thought of giving up, she was grateful that she didn’t because she had me and a granddaughter she loved more than anything else in the world. She showed me that despite the tragic events, something wonderful can also happen. She opened her heart to me and by doing that, she opened my path to rediscovering writing. I realized that if my mother had the courage and strength to survive after August 6th, then I could create through my own pain and loss.
I expressed my heart-felt appreciation to her 8 years later when I began writing The Last Cherry Blossom. After reading one of the drafts, she told me that she finally understood why she survived. She couldn’t or didn’t know how to tell her story, but I could do that for her, for her Papa-for my Japanese family. I’m grateful we could give each other the gift of seeing the beauty in life’s changes as when the last cherry blossom falls.
~ Kathleen Burkinshaw
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. She has presented her mother’s experience in Hiroshima to middle and high schools for the past 8 years. Writing historical fiction also satisfies her obsessive love of researching anything and everything. The Last Cherry Blossom, is recently nominated for the NC School Library Media Assoc. YA Book Award,a SCBWI Crystal Kite Award Finalist (southeast region), 2016 & 2018 Scholastic WNDB Reading Club selection, nominated for both the 2018 NC Sir Walter Raleigh Fiction Award and the 2018 Sakura Medal in Japan.
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Hi! My name is Abby and what 
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Samantha M Clark is the author of THE BOY, THE BOAT, AND THE BEAST (Paula Wiseman Books/Simon & Schuster) and has always loved stories about ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. After all, if four ordinary brothers and sisters can find a magical world at the back of a wardrobe, why can’t she? While she looks for her real-life Narnia, she writes about other ordinary children and teens who’ve stumbled into a wardrobe of their own. In a past life, Samantha was a photojournalist and managing editor for newspapers and magazines. She lives with her husband and two kooky dogs in Austin, Texas. Samantha is the Regional Advisor for the Austin chapter of the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators, and explores wardrobes every chance she gets. Sign up for news and giveaways at 
a teacher, a mom of two girls, and finally done with school and on to summer break! I said goodbye to my 22 fifth graders last Friday at their Moving Up Ceremony since they are off to the middle school! And I gave each one of them an end-of-the-year gift which includes a Krazy Straw and a pack of Kool-Aid that I attach to a book. And each of my students gets a different book – one that I have hand-picked for them based on everything I’ve learned from a year of getting to know them as readers and as people. Each June I spend about 2 hours browsing the Syracuse Scholastic Warehouse to select something I think each child would like. 
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educators is Nikki Mancini – who you may know as 
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Denis Markell, although not a games master himself, has been telling stories for most of his professional career. His stories have been featured in Off-Broadway Musicals and Revues, in sitcoms, and even in an episode of the legendary animated series ThunderCats. His own story took fantastic turn when he met and married the illustrator Melissa Iwai, with whom he has created two picture books, The Great Stroller Adventure and Hush, Little Monster. His debut novel, Click Here To Start (Delacorte Press), was a Junior Library Guild Selection and an Amazon Best Book of the Month. His next book, The Game Masters Of Garden Place (Delacorte Press) will be published in July of 2018. (Photo by Nelson Hancock)
Standing at a mighty 5′ 3″, 
Science Rocks! And so do Jennifer Swanson’s books. She is the award-winning author of over 35 nonfiction books for children. A self-professed science geek, Jennifer started a science club in her garage at the age of 7. While no longer working from the garage, Jennifer’s passion for science resonates in in all her books but especially, BRAIN GAMES (NGKids) and SUPER GEAR: Nanotechnology and Sports Team Up (Charlesbridge) which was named an NSTA Best STEM book of 2017 and an NSTA Outstanding Trade Book 2017. Jennifer’s book, Geoengineering Earth’s Climate: Re-setting the Thermostat (Lerner Books) received a Green Earth Book Honor Award. She has presented at National NSTA conferences, the Highlights Foundation, and also the World Science Festival. You can find Jennifer through her website 
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