$21.99
72 pages • Jacketed Hardcover • Ages 4-8 • 8” x 11.3” • ISBN: 978-1-6365-506-40
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.
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.
Yellow Butterfly
By Oleksandr Shatokhin
“A moving portrait of a young child whose hope for the future transforms a dark world of war into a bright blue sky where yellow butterflies flutter freely.”
–The New York Times
–––
“Provocative, powerful, breathtakingly beautiful.
There is much for readers to interpret through conversations and multiple readings in these artfully designed pages, . . . Shatokhin employs color, scale, perspective, and pattern to great effect in timely—and timeless—scenes that capture the protagonist’s fear, fury, frustration, and ultimately hope. Exquisite compositions depict a yellow swarm of butterflies becoming the child’s wings, lifting them to see a blue sky amid the destruction (yellow and blue being the colors of the Ukrainian flag).”
–Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review
–––
“Both timely and timeless, evoking war and its aftermath without losing sight of hope.”
–Booklist, Starred Review
–––
“Stark images in black and white lead this sympathetic wordless picture book about a girl who’s enduring the war in Ukraine.”
–Foreward Reviews, Starred Review
–––
“Via an emotionally tinged arc that moves from darkness to light, Ukrainian creator Shatokhin offers a visual prospect of a time when “yellow butterflies will flutter freely in free Ukraine.” . . . [an] unflinching response to current events from the perspective of a single child.”
–Publishers Weekly
–––
“Using modest means, the author evokes the darkness of war and a vision of peace. Quite an achievement for a wordless picture book!”
–Uri Shulevitz, Caldecott medal winner and author of the autobiography Chance: Escape from the Holocaust, Memories of a Refugee Childhood
–––
“Yellow Butterfly has realms of meaning for me. I grew up with the style and the hidden ideas just like that. It is all about freedom. My life is about freedom. And the War in Ukraine is about freedom.
My adult life is formed by the Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. Unfortunately, so is Oleksandr Shatokhin’s 55 years later. The book is like looking into the mirror of my life … in style and in the sentiment … freedom is never given voluntarily by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. Free Ukraine!”
–Peter Sis, Caldecott Honor artist and creator of The Wall, Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain
–––
“Breathtaking!”
–Ruta Sepetys, author of Between Shades of Gray
Oleksandr Shatokhin
Oleksandr Shatokhin is an artist living and working in Ukraine. He created this response to the war in the first months after the Russian invasion of his country. Having evacuated from his home town of Sumy in Eastern Ukraine, he is looking to settle in Lviv, Western Ukraine, with his wife and small child. He is the author and illustrator of The Happiest Lion Cub, also published by Red Comet Press.