Skip to main content

Books That Take You There: Ukraine

By

Ukraine is a region that has, both currently and historically, undergone an extreme amount of upheaval. Here are some books that can help you teach your children about the history, culture, and people of Ukraine. Or maybe just help you to learn more about it yourself.

The Lost Year
By Katherine Marsh
New York: Roaring Brook Press, 2023. Fiction. 354 pages.

In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Matthew is struggling with online learning, being cooped up in the house, and not being able to see his friends and father, who is reporting about the pandemic in France. Matthew is living with his mother and his high-risk 100-year-old Ukrainian-born great, great grandmother Nadiya (nicknamed GG). After an unfortunate incident involving a stray arrow, Matthew is punished by the removal of his gaming system, the one thing he looks forward to in life currently. His mom asks him to help GG go through old boxes of her stuff, where he finds out more about his family's history during the Soviet takeover of Ukraine during the 1930s and the Holodomor famine. The book jumps in perspective between Matthew and the three cousins living during the 1930s, Nadiya, Helen, and Mila. This is a beautifully written tear-jerker and, well-deservedly, was a finalist for last year's National Book Award. If you're interested in how the Soviet Union's past interference in Ukraine has impacted current relations between the two regions, this is an excellent book to check out.

Threads: Zlata's Ukrainian Shirt
By Lina Maslo
New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux Books for Young Readers, 2024. Picture Book.

If you would like to read about the same time period as The Lost Year, but are looking for a picture book rather than a novel, pick up Threads. Loosely based on the experiences of the author's grandparents, Threads takes place in 1932 as the Communists have taken over Ukraine. Zlata's family begins to hide food and other necessary supplies from the Communists as they go door to door ransacking houses and taking goods. On Zlata's eighth birthday, her mother gives her a beautiful and embroidered shirt made with a traditional Ukrainian design. But after their neighbors, who were also invited to her birthday party, turn her family in to the Soviets, her father is taken away along with all of their food and the birthday shirt her mother made her. This lovely story of Ukrainian resilience explains the Holodomor famine in an easily accessible way for younger children. 

Yellow Butterfly
By Oleksandr Shatokhin
Brooklyn: Red Comet Press, 2023. Picture Book.

If you're looking for a more current story of Ukrainian resilience, look no further than Yellow Butterfly. This wordless picture book, illustrates the destruction being left in modern-day Ukraine. The book begins in black, which when zoomed out we see is a barbed wire fence. Among the barbed wire appears a yellow butterfly, which leads a girl on a journey through the bombed out remains of a playground and tree. As the child removes a missile from the earth, a kaleidoscope of yellow butterflies show a possible brighter future for Ukraine. Although the story is abstract, there is information included at the end of the book about how to share a wordless picture book and how to guide conversation after digesting this difficult story. 

The Story of Ukraine
Written by Olena Kharchenko and Michael Sampson
Illustrated by Polina Doroshenko
Dallas; New York: Brown Books Kids, 2022. Informational.

Through the words of the Ukrainian national anthem, this book shows the resiliency of the Ukrainian spirit. Written by a Ukrainian national as well as a Fulbright Scholar to Ukraine and illustrated by a Ukrainian artist from Kyiv, this book is written in both English and Ukrainian. This book discusses the history, culture, and national symbols of Ukraine. 

By Alicia Klepeis
Minneapolis: Bellwether Media, 2021. Informational. 32 pages. 

If you are looking for a simple and concise book with country facts and information about Ukraine, look no further than this book. With two page spreads about location, landscape, wildlife, customs, and more, this book gives readers basic information about Ukraine without bogging them down with too many details. It also includes fun activities like creating a flower garden to celebrate Ivana Kupala and a recipe for syrniki, traditional Ukrainian pancakes.  




Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: The Factory

By
The Factory By Catherine Egan New York, NY : Scholastic Inc., 2025. Fiction. 306 pages.  Thirteen-year-old Asher Doyle has been invited to join the Factory, a secretive research facility in the desert which ostensibly extracts renewable energy from the electromagnetic fields of its young recruits. But Asher soon realizes something sinister is going on. Kids are getting sick. The adults who run the Factory seem to be keeping secrets. And the extraction process is not only painful and exhausting, but existentially troubling. Asher makes a handful of new friends who help him with an investigation that turns into a resistance, which turns into...a cliffhanger! The Factory is a page-turning sci-fi with multidimensional characters, an intriguing plot, and refreshingly straight-forward writing. Egan weaves in detail about climate crises and social unrest, making the story's dystopian setting feel rich and plausible. With its sophisticated themes and accessible storytelling, I would recomm...
Post a Comment
Read more

National Geographic Book of Animal Poetry

By DeeDee
National Geographic Book of Animal Poetry Edited by J. Patrick Lewis National Geographic, 2012, 183 p. Poetry In this beautiful poetry collection, the National Children's Poet Laureate, J. Patrick Lewis, has teamed up with the amazing photographers at National Geographic. The result is 200 poems about animals, all illustrated with stunning nature photography.  The poems are well chosen and include rhyming, free verse, and shape poetry. Some of the poems are funny, many are contemplative and all are nicely typeset on top of the full color photographs. One of my favorites is a shape poem about flamingos, with a photograph of a flock of flamingos which seem to be standing the the shape of a flamingo (how did they do that?).  Lewis ends the collection with a brief but interesting section about writing animal poetry.  This selection is sure to turn any animal lover into a poetry lover.
Post a Comment
Read more

Review: A Game of Noctis

By
A Game of Noctis By Deva Fagan New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2024. Fiction. 310 pages. On the island of Dantessa, social standings and wealth are determined by your place in the Great Game. If you keep on winning, you can reap treasures, power, and security for yourself and your family; but if you lose too many games, you'll be exiled to Pawn Island and a life of servitude. That's what happens to 12-year-old Pia's grandfather. Due to poor vision, he struggles to see the games, but also can't afford new eyeglasses without winning. When his score falls to zero, he is sent away. Desperate to bring him back, Pia joins a ragtag group of misfits to form a team for the annual game of Noctis. The game requires contestants to perform dangerous challenges in front of a live audience, and no one outside the wealthy Diamond District has ever won. Each member of Pia's team, the Seafoxes, has their own reason to compete, but if they're going to win they'll h...
Post a Comment
Read more