Butterfly Has Strength In Frailty
The Butterfly by Patricia Polacco
The Butterfly was a book pulled quickly off the library shelf, but it is one that will stay in my heart long after I've returned the book.The cover gives away that this book will be more serious than most. A sad-eyed girl stands sober with blond wisps of hair weeping from her braid as a Nazi flag whips in front of her and the butterfly mounted on a blue iris. On the back, the harsh, square chin of the Nazi soldier holding the flag is drawn in dark lines pulling you away from his hidden eyes or any remotely humanizing feature.
While the setting was obviously a grim one, the title was optimistic, so I began reading it aloud to my three-year-old. It is a testament to the strength of the storytelling style of Michigan author Patricia Polacco that my son sat rapt through the entire 48-page illustrated book, despite its subject and seriousness being beyond his grasp.
Because I was reading it to a child, I skipped over the dust jacket description and the dedication. Although I understand the need to market a book so it can reach its intended audience, I do wish I could more frequently experience a book the way I did The Butterfly, with the still sticky wings breaking out of the gray cocoon, surprising me with its emergence as a delicate creature of beauty and hope. Indeed, I would urge you to stop reading my review now and go out and read this book before you learn anything more about it. Yet, I recognize you have many more things competing for your time and may not feel compelled on my word alone to purchase or borrow this book. If that is the case, read on, but be warned that while you may still admire the miracle of The Butterfly, you may lose a little of the wonder that the book fosters.
Monique Discovers
Had I first read the dedication or the book flap, I would have learned that this book is based on a true story and real people-relatives of the author. A young girl, Monique, is a resident of occupied France during World War II. Monique is the author's aunt. She lives with her mother Marcel Solliliage. One evening, she wakes up to see a ghost on her bed, petting her cat Pinouff and staring wistfully at the moon. She tries to speak to the ghost, but the ghost flees. When she tells her mother of it the next morning, her mother sharply tells her that it was nothing more than a dream.That day Monique and her friend Denise witness the Nazis taking away a friendly storekeeper that indulged them with treats. The Nazi soldiers beat him in the street and haul him away, calling him Judenschwein. Several evenings later, Monique discovers the ghost in her room again, and then learns that the "ghost" is really a Jewish girl her age who has been hiding with her family in the cellar. Monique begins to discover that her mother is an active member of the French resistance and has hid many families in their home. She becomes friends with the young girl, Sevrine, and starts to understand the dangers she and all other Jews face.
The illustration on the next page takes us from the dark, clandestine meeting of the girls to a bright garden, painted idyllic in words as well as colors. Monique is admiring a butterfly and its freedom when a glove comes over the wall, smashing the butterfly with a taunt at the child. It is then Monique understands that the Nazis would crush her friend as easily as they did the butterfly. It is also this moment that inspires her actions for the rest of the book-actions that would require courage, sacrifice, and commitment far beyond what we usually ask of young girls.
Do Children Need Happy Endings?
This book filled me with apprehensions and fears as I read it aloud, fearful of continuing, but too mesmerized to stop. I had a great fear that the book would end in tragedy, sending my child to bed with nightmares he couldn't yet understand. I knew how many sad endings reality held in this period of history and I was none to certain that the author had selected one of the triumphant stories simply because her audience were children. Certainly she hadn't yet shirked from portraying painful and frightening images. While I won't ruin the book for you by telling you how it ends, I will say that it was in an imminently satisfying manner. She compromised none of the stark realism of the book, but managed to inject an uplifting, almost mystic ending.If A Picture Paints A Thousand Words
The illustrations in this book are watercolors ranging from scenic gardens and charming French homes to dark, ghostly encounters and terror-filled scenes of cruel Nazi soldiers terrorizing French citizens. Polacco illustrated as well as wrote this book. She reinforced her story with red smudges around the eyes of the children, the paleness of Sevine, and the serenity of the mother. Polacco was able to be sparse in words at crucial points as the expressions she drew on the characters spoke volumes.If you would like to see some of the illustrations from this book, Polacco's site displays much of her artwork from this book and others. It stuck out to me that none of the eyes of the Nazis were ever shown. The majority of the time, you saw only a fist or a boot. However, even when they were shown face-on, their eyes were shadowed by their caps. In some ways, the dehumanizing of the Nazis bothered me. They were drawn differently from the others in the book and not a one of them were given a name.
While I am in no way a Nazi sympathizer, this treatment bothered me. There is a danger to dehumanizing the enemy. When we demonize the Nazis, we deny that we are a part of them and that we have the capacity within us to commit the crimes that they did. That denial can be the blinder that lets us treat others with cruelty in the belief that we are justified and right. We know in our hearts that we are not monsters, and so justify our actions through comparison. I'd rather have it be shown that the Nazis shared our same humanity but made choices to deny it and to yield to the temptations of power and strength.
Should Children Read It?
I would be hard pressed to say what age group this book is appropriate for. My three-year-old was able to appreciate it in his own fashion, but he lacks the perspective to know the extent of the danger that Sevrine and her family faced. There are some highly frightening and tense scenes in this book and Polacco doesn't gloss over any of the horrors. The author also includes phrases in both German and French and provides no translations for them. Because of these things, this book lends itself well to be read aloud by an adult to children who are either studying this period in history or who are receptive to the theme and not overly sensitive. Reading it aloud means the adult is also available to help explain and provide comfort if needed.Polacco recognizes the intensity she brings to a book written for children. She said, "I knew I wanted to show the horrors of war to children in way that they could identify with... I felt the fist crushing the butterfly would make a powerful statement they could understand without beating them over their heads with pictures of blood and violence. I feel that children understand more than we give them credit for...they have an incredible capacity for compassion, and they understand that we have very dark parts to our history as human beings. We need to keep telling these stories... hopefully we won't repeat our mistakes."
Ultimately, The Butterfly is the story of courage and friendship. It is a story of freedom and one that is told with strength and innocence. I'm definitely planning to find Polacco's other books and see if she tells them with the same power.
Polocco said her story "pays homage to those who have stood up against oppression... those who have shown courage... and those who know the joy of true friendship."
