Review of Butterfly Girl – Ashling Kwok & Arielle Li

Butterfly Girl is a charming and sensitively illustrated book about friendship and making space for animals, even in an urban environment. Olivia, who loves butterflies, has to leave her home in the countryside and move into a city apartment. Feeling lonely without her fluttering friends, she realises she needs to transform her bare balcony if she wants her friends to visit — and that turns out to be a great way to meet her new neighbours!

Butterfly Girl
Ashling Kwok & Arielle Li

EK Books
Supplied by Fantail Communications
Reviewed by Jan Butterworth
Olivia has an idyllic life out in the countryside with unlimited space and her butterfly friends that come when she sang and danced and whirled and fluttered and twirled. Then her parents spilt up and Olivia and her mother move to an flat in the city. Leaving her butterfly friends behind makes Olivia sad but her mum is positive that she will make new friends in the city. So they move to the new place and Olivia waits for new friends to find her. She waits and waits and waits some more.

On her balcony, Olivia tries singing to her butterfly friends and she danced and whirled and fluttered and twirled but they stayed away. Realising her drab, colourless garden had none of butterflies favourite things, she created a little garden to attract them. She then sang and danced harder and waited and waited and waited. Still they stayed away as the city was too drab and colourless for them.
Then a neighbour asked Olivia for help in planing a garden. Soon, she was helping more and more of her neighbours to pant gardens. Their building became a sea of vibrant colour in the drab, colourless city. Olivia now had many friends – but would her butterfly friends come back?

This is a charming story about perseverance and how sitting back and waiting doesn’t work; you need to work to make things happen and magic happen anywhere with a bit of imagination. It also shows that the smallest person can make a huge difference to the environment and the lives of others. The artwork is amazing; soft and restful colours and the illustrations tell the story well. There is a handy guide to creating your own butterfly garden in the back of the book. It has tips and tricks on how to attract butterflies. A cute story that has valuable lessons without being preachy.