A Kirkus Reviews Best Picture Book of the Year
A USBBY Outstanding International Book 2024
A Bank Street Best Book of the Year 2024
★ "Provocative, powerful, breathtakingly beautiful." –STARRED REVIEW, Kirkus Reviews
★ "Both timely and timeless, evoking war and its aftermath without losing sight of hope."–STARRED REVIEW, Booklist
★ "Stark images in black and white lead this sympathetic wordless picture book about a girl who’s enduring the war in Ukraine."–STARRED REVIEW, Foreword Review
"Breathtaking" –Ruta Sepetys, author of Between Shades of Gray
"A beautiful and heartbreaking tribute to the resiliency of people in wartime;"– School Library Journal
"A moving portrait."–New York Times
A wordless picture book portrayal of war seen through the eyes of a young girl who finds hope in the symbolism of yellow butterflies against the background of a pure blue sky. Using the colors of his national flag, Oleksandr Shatokhin has created a deeply emotional response to the conflict in Ukraine and provided a narrative full of powerful visual metaphors for readers to consider as they travel from the devastating effects of war to a place of hope for peace and the future.
A portion of the sale of this book will be donated to the Universal Reading Foundation who supply children's books to Ukraine.
Back matter includes notes on sharing a wordless picture book and how to talk to children about war.
"A wordless picture book portrayal of war seen through the eyes of a young girl who finds hope in the symbolism of yellow butterflies against the background of a pure blue sky. Using the colors of his national flag, Oleksandr Shatokhin has created a deeply emotional response to the conflict in Ukraine and provided a narrative full of powerful visual metaphors for readers to consider as they travel from the devastating effects of war to a place of hope for peace and the future. Back matter includes notes on sharing a wordless picture book and how to talk to children about war."--Publisher's description.
