From the award-winning author of Flygirl comes this powerful WWII romance between two Japanese teens caught in the cogs of an unwinnable war, perfect for fans of Salt to the Sea, Lovely War, and Code Name Verity.Japan 1945. Taro is a talented violinist and a kamikaze pilot in the days before his first and only mission. He believes he is ready to die for his country . . . until he meets Hana. Hana … before his first and only mission. He believes he is ready to die for his country . . . until he meets Hana. Hana hasn’t been the same since the day she was buried alive in a collapsed trench during a bomb raid. She wonders if it would have been better to have died that day . . . until she meets Taro.
A song will bring them together. The war will tear them apart. Is it possible to live an entire lifetime in eight short days?
Sherri L. Smith has been called “an author with astonishing range” and “a stellar storyteller” by E. Lockhart, the New York Times-bestselling author of We Were Liars, and “a truly talented writer” by Jacqueline Woodson, the National Book Award-winning author of Brown Girl Dreaming. Here, with achingly beautiful prose, Smith weaves a tale of love in the face of death, of hope in the face of tragedy, set against a backdrop of the waning days of the Pacific War.
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A sensitive and lyrical tale, full of redemption, sacrifice, and hope. Sherri L. Smith excels at shining a light into dusty corners of history, this time giving us an intimate look at the human cost of war in 1945 Japan. A stirring, sparkling gem of a novel.
To be a talented and sensitive teenager in Japan under the shadow of WWII. This is an exquisitely sensitive novel, beautifully rendered.
Delicate and incandescent by turns, this jewel of a tale of war and love is breathtakingly courageous.
Sherri L. Smith continues to astound with The Blossom and the Firefly, an exquisite novel that shines with compassion and empathy as it illuminates the numbing terror of war and the healing power of music and love.
A beautiful, poignant, and heartrending journey of two souls toward an appalling inevitability. With the most delicate of touches, Sherri L. Smith creates a meticulous portrait of a nation and two of its children deceived, driven, and undone by the hubris of authoritarian rule. A gentle love story and a horrific warning for the ages.
I was definitely intrigued by the historical aspect of this that is not often found in YA books, at least not that I’ve noticed. At first the jumping from character to character and going back in time for Taro’s part of the story kept me flipping back to figure out where I was, but I soon understood and was able to dive into the story. I was also lucky that we ended up with a snow day the week I chose to read this, because I got to spend my snow day reading and finishing the story.
There was so much that made me think in this book. Originally I gave it only 4 stars, because I thought it was going to be more about Hiroshima or even get us close into Pearl Harbor and what happened with that. But as I continue to think about what I read, and even discuss it with others, I decided to bump it up to 4.5.
One thing that really stood out to me was that the soldiers/pilots, may still have had girls falling in love with them like even American soldiers do. But the end result for these was so different that it really stuck out to me. You see the kamikaze pilots main goal was to crash and burn. To crash into the enemies boats, planes, whatever, and the goal was not to make it out alive. They were sacrificing everything for their country. So if for some reason they didn’t die, then they were considered disgraced and that they’d dishonored their own names. So how hard would it have been to fall in love with those men, boys at times? Not to mention the women’s own sacrificial mindsets. Strapping their children to their bodies and then drowning them as they committed suicide themselves so that they could meet their husband on the other side after his mission was victorious.
Definitely an eye-opening read, one I plan to promote with students and teachers.
Written in gorgeous, lyrical prose, The Blossom and the Firefly transports readers to the impending doom hovering over an air base in Japan during the final days of World War II. This little-known slice of history comes alive through the voices of Nadeshiko girl Hana and tokkō pilot Taro, two teenagers whose sense of duty to their country is equal only to their shared feelings of loss as they hover between life and death. Many a tear will be shed over these pages. Absolutely stunning.