Saving the Butterfly by Helen Cooper, Walker books 2022

A poetic, powerful story about a little brother and a big sister finding a new home and new hope after being rescued from a boat lost in the dark sea.

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Longlisted for Yoto Carnegie Medal 2023

Shortlisted for Klaus Flugge Prize 2023

with illustrations that find sweetness in sadness, this touching picture book is the resonant story of refugee siblings who have lost everything but each other' The Sunday Times

Gill Smith’s illustrations for Saving the Butterfly (Walker) by Helen Cooper also lean towards muted grey shades as we see a boy and his older sister, two refugees, rescued from a boat. The boy settles, makes friends, but the girl is haunted by the past and can’t move on until the day her brother brings her a butterfly. As the insect and the girl begin to flourish, the illustrations become as rich and colourful as the butterfly’s wings. A tender tale focusing on the aftermath of conflict, it’s a great companion to Nicola Davies’s The Day War Came (2019).' Observer

‘a triumph of storytelling in words and art.' 'Children's Books About Immigration', The New York Times

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