cover image Yellow Butterfly: A Story from Ukraine

Yellow Butterfly: A Story from Ukraine

Oleksander Shatokhin. Red Comet, $21.99 (72p) ISBN 978-1-63655-064-0

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.” Threatening, nightmarish images in black-and-white begin this wordless work. Initial pages show lines of barbed wire alongside the silhouette of a solitary light-skinned child, obscuring the youth’s eyes; a large spider appears amid the barbs and gives chase, and the child trips over a rock. Soon, though, a single glowing yellow butterfly emerges, and over ensuing spreads that feature war-torn backgrounds, the child follows its meanderings. Starkly rendered, scribbly images juxtapose scenes of war with glimpses of the natural world, portray the child’s reactions, and show the butterfly multiplying across various landscapes—a dark crater appears in one, children enjoy a playground in another. Eventually, patches of blue sky appear, swarming with yellow butterflies that form wings for the child as well as dismantle the barbed wire of the book’s initial pages. A final spread depicts pale figures gazing at a blue and yellow horizon that mimics Ukraine’s flag. Guidelines for sharing a wordless book with young readers conclude this unflinching response to current events from the perspective of a single child. Ages 4–8. (Jan.)