The Blossom and the Firefly

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. Now in paperback!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 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.

AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR: Sherri L. Smith's Flygirl won the California Book Awards Gold Medal and was a Washington Post Best Book of the Year and an ALA Best Book for Young Adults. Here she returns to her favorite subject: WWII pilots.UNIQUE HISTORICAL POINT OF VIEW NOT YET EXPLORED IN YA LITERATURE: WWII stories are perennially popular, and like Ruta Sepetys's Ashes in the Snow and Salt to the Sea, Smith's latest explores a lesser-known subject from the time period.FASCINATING HISTORY BEHIND THE STORY: Hana is part of the Nadeshiko Tai, a unit of schoolgirls charged with tending to the suicide pilots before their missions: mending and washing their clothes, serving their meals, making their beds-and, every few days, lining the runway, cherry blossoms in their arms, to wave goodbye.GENDER-NEUTRAL STORYTELLING: The story unfolds between dual points of view-a boy and a girl-and will appeal to a wide audience.EXCITING ACTION: Readers will follow Taro through the military academy and flight school and on the thrilling journey of learning to fly.SWOON-WORTHY-YET CHASTE-ROMANCE: Readers will root for-and cry for-Taro and Hana, whose tragic story is made all the more dramatic by almost certain death.BACK MATTER: Includes an author's note about the real history behind the story and Smith's extensive research, a selected bibliography, and a glossary.INCLUDES A TEASER FOR FLYGIRL BY SHERRI L. SMITH