Review of “A Butterfly's Song” by Tuula Pere

Score: 94+/100 (9.4+ out of 10)

A Butterfly's Song is another beautiful, heartwarming children's book by Tuula Pere, the most prolific children's author in our competitions. Tuula Pere always impresses us with the emotional depth of her characters. Her characters, by the way, are often very colorful in more ways than one!

A Butterfly's Song follows a butterfly named Pupa who has just emerged from her cocoon. She is pale white, possibly an albino, and is self-conscious that she may not be as colorful, glamorous, and beautiful as the other butterflies. Making things worse, she also seems to have had a rough time coming out of cocoon, leaving her wings wrinkled. However, this may just be a natural things that new butterflies go through.

In a lot of ways, this book is a cute little coming-of-age story. Kids experiencing puberty or going to their first school can go through these feelings of anxiety. So, once again, Pere has nailed creating a sympathetic character in a very sympathetic situation.

Kids will definitely be able to relate to Pupa's struggles and journey to find herself.

Another thing we really loved about this book is the art. We often say that a book's art isn't the Mona Lisa (and this book's art isn't the Mona Lisa), but we really fell in love with the genuine, hand-drawn, hand-colored look and feel.

Everything looks like it was hand-painted, hand-drawn, and/or hand-colored.

Something else that was very impressive about the art was the lighting. A great deal of this book takes place at night, and the illustrator comes up with clever ways to illuminate the scene and makes things colorful and lively. For example, the scene is illuminated by stars on one panel.

This book is a parade of bright, beautiful yellows and blues, highlighting Pupa's extraordinary journey of self-discovery.

Check this out on Amazon!