Yellow Butterfly
Written and illustrated by Oleksandr Shatokhin
Red Comet Press, 2023, 64 pages (unpaged)
ISBN: 978-1636550640

This powerful visual narrative, originally published in Ukraine, tells the story of war through the eyes of a young girl. She is alone in a world filled with destruction until she notices a bright yellow butterfly. As she follows it, the butterfly leads her on a journey from the pain of war to a place filled with hope, healing, and the dream of peace.

The visual narrative format of Yellow Butterfly creates tremendous impact. It has been said by many that the unspoken word is often much more powerful than the one that is spoken. Yellow Butterfly can generate this type of reaction with readers who use their own experiences, devices, and surroundings to draw interpretations based on the visual images created by the artist. When addressing difficult topics, reaching a young audience takes a highly skilled author who is both persuasive yet subtle. It is that balance that Oleksandr Shatokhin achieves with Yellow Butterfly. Young readers do not get lost in the devastating details of the descriptions. Instead, they are encouraged to travel on a simpler plane than adult readers would often be traversing by having the story presented as a visual narrative. A child will see beauty well before an adult who has lived a longer, more challenging existence. Furthermore, a universality can possibly be achieved by the absence of words since meaning and cultural interpretation are limited artistically, as well as visually rather than semantically. That which is seen delivers the greatest impact rather than that which is interpreted through the modalities of a culture’s language and art.

The absence of words allows the book to become less of a lectured message and more of a visualized experience. Moreover, the colors and lines phrase the “music” of the message in a clever and powerful manner. The hands of the young girl reaching to catch the butterfly are outstretched and inviting, allowing an interpretation of concern. The expression on the youngster’s face directs attention to this frail creature. The barbed wire and the missiles are counter-punctuated by the innocence of the young girl who hopes for a return to the beauty and simplicity of the past. The images in black and white are enlivened with the hope of color seen through the yellows and blues that symbolize the Ukrainian national flag. Preaching about the folly of war is less powerful when children are the audience. Showing these same children pictures of hope and determination, embodied in the young girl’s face and the devastation of the aggressive war in the pictures of the strands of barbed wire and trenches caused by bombs shelling the countryside, is a more effective tool to make the author’s point. The child’s aggressive beating of her fists against the side of a bomb underscores this point. Furthermore, the change from black to gray to white as that book proceeds reinforces the hope that the young girl possesses as she sees the pounding of her fists against the bomb produce a geometric increase of the yellow butterflies that eventually flood the page of the book with yellow and the beginnings of a blue sky. Hope is being summoned.

Ukraine has a history of many centuries. Somewhat smaller than Texas in the United States of America, the country has been dominated by Russia. Ukraine found its freedom in 1991 as a result of the collapse of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). In December of that year, Ukraine declared its independence from the USSR, created a referendum, and passed the referendum to declare itself an independent state. Unfortunately, the present Russian government and the government of Ukraine are at war. The subsequent battles have caused great losses of military personnel, cities, infrastructure, and much more.

In summary, hope is the driving force in Yellow Butterfly as a young girl processes the devastation that the war has caused around her beloved homeland of Ukraine. She is too young to understand the socio-political implications of the bombing and terror taking place around her. She draws on her inner strength and channels her frustration when she lashes out at the destruction being caused by the bombs. In fact, she pounds the bomb with her fists. This results in the appearance of more and more butterflies appearing as more colors enter her world.

Yellow Butterfly pairs well with books about war in Ukraine like Quiet Night, My Astronaut: The First Days (and Nights) of the War in Ukraine by Oksana Lushchevska and Kateryna Stepanishcheva (2024) or other books about war and resilience like The Day War Came by Nicola Davies and Rebecca Cobb (2018) or The Journey by Francesca Sanna (2016). Yellow Butterfly can also be read alongside other wordless books like The Arrival by Shaun Tan (2007) or The Line by Paula Bossio (2013).

Author Oleksandr Shatokhin lives in Sumi, Ukraine with his wife and daughter. The pride in the artist’s country and his people is held in high esteem by his creative and sensitive heart. One who feels such a strong affinity to his homeland does not take lightly the devastation being perpetrated upon the citizenry of Shatokhin’s precious homeland. His work can be further explored here. Yellow Butterfly is a 2024 USBBY Outstanding International Book.

Joseph S. Pizzo, Black River Middle School and Centenary University, New Jersey

© 2025 by Joseph S. Pizzo