Marwan, Zahra. Where Butterflies Fill the Sky. New York: Bloomsbury Children’s Books, 2022.
How does it feel to be stateless? How can someone can belong to no country, at all? What future is there for people born in a country that will not permit them to receive medical care, go to public school or college, or get married?
This quietly wistful picture book tells the story of a little girl leaving the land of her birth and moving to a new country. The layout of the sentences on the pages – spread out across the full-page illustrations – add to the feeling of floating from one place to another. The soft dreamy colours of the ink and watercolour drawings add to the feeling of not truly belonging anywhere. In an extensive afterward, the author explains why her family left Kuwait to immigrate to New Mexico. She also explains the memories and symbols shown in her illustrations. Highly recommended as a read-aloud for children 5 years old and up and for older students learning about world politics.