Yellow Butterfly

Oleksandr Shatokhin is an artist and children's book illustrator who lives and works in Sumy, Eastern Ukraine, close to the border with Russia.

Kirkus Reviews - A Best Picture Book of the Year
A USBBY Outstanding International Book 2024

A Bank Street Best Book of the Year 2024

"Responding to the Russia-Ukraine war, Ukrainian artist Shatokhin's wordless narrative offers a child's-eye view of military conflict . . . 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) . . . Provocative, powerful, breathtakingly beautiful."-STARRED REVIEW, Kirkus Reviews



"Young readers . . . will connect with the emotion coursing through its apposite Expressionist illustrations. . . This moving story is 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 Reviews


"A beautiful and heartbreaking tribute to the resiliency of people in wartime; with support from adults, children will gain perspective on the need for hope under hardship."-School Library Journal

"Using the colors of his national flag, the Ukrainian author-illustrator of this wordless picture book paints 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


"Using modest means, the author