Paper Butterflies

by Lisa Heathfield

Overview

June's life at home with her stepmother and stepsister is a dark one—and a secret one. Not even her dad knows the truth, and she can't find the words to tell anyone else. She's trapped like a butterfly in a net. Then June meets Blister, a boy from a large, loving, chaotic family. In him, she finds a glimmer of hope that perhaps she can find a way to fly far, far away. Because she deserves her freedom. Doesn't she?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781512482423
Publisher:	Lerner Publishing Group
Publication date:	10/01/2017
Series:	Fiction - Young Adult
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	NOOK Book
Pages:	272
File size:	3 MB
Age Range:	12 - 18 Years

About the Author

Lisa Heathfield is an award-winning author and a former high school English teacher. She lives with her family in Brighton, England.

Editorial Reviews

5Q 3P J S


"After her father remarries Kathleen, a white woman, June's world is turned upside down. She is dark in a world of white where white is good and dark is bad. Kathleen, her stepsister, and the students at school all physically and emotionally abuse her, so much so that she is terrified to speak. She cannot tell anyone, not even her best friend and eventual love, Blister. When she tries to tell her teachers, other adults, and her father, no one believes her; she is made to feel like everything is her fault. The madness of it is too much for June.

Heathfield has written a beautifully heartbreaking story that will frighten readers, tear them apart, give them hope, leave them hopeless, and, finally, give them some relief. June battles with so much torment—not only the physical and emotional abuse of those attacking her, but from within as well. Through all the hate, shame, and horribleness she endures, she still maintains the belief that evil cannot and will not win. Although terror plays a large role in this novel, there are themes of love, family, justice, and hope. The book contains many detailed scenes of abuse that could be upsetting to sensitive readers, but it is appropriate for junior and senior high readers prepared for that kind of horror."—VOYA

From the Publisher

10/01/2017
Gr 9 Up—June is trying to cope with the death of her mother while simultaneously gaining a new stepmother and stepsister. She feels left out of this newly formed familial unit both because she's biracial and owing to the increasingly cruel and alienating actions of her stepmother. June's father is too blinded by love and the façade of a happy home to notice the tension between his family members. Her miserable home life, coupled with bullies at school, lead the protagonist to slowly withdraw. June's only refuge comes from taking long bike rides. It is on one of these bike rides that she meets a young boy named Blister. The two friends bond over their love of origami, buried treasure, and make-believe. June's loving interactions with Blister and his family only further highlight the dysfunction within her own home. When a shocking revelation further alters June's relationship with her father, the nature of Blister and June's friendship changes. A horrible incident widens the divide between the two friends. This novel is written in vignette form and toggles between before and after a cataclysmic event. The story examines emotional and physical abuse from a unique perspective. However, the use of foreshadowing in combination with imaginative thematic devices jumbles the narrative too much and might leave readers confused about what's real and what isn't. VERDICT A good selection for large libraries serving young adults.—Desiree Thomas, Worthington Library, OH

School Library Journal

2017-07-02
Can the Guardian and Britain's CILIP Carnegie Children's Book Awards be wrong? Not that this lauded and nominated book by author Heathfield isn't harrowing. It's the 14-year-spanning story of June Kingston, a mixed-race black girl whose white stepmother, Kathleen, continually racially denigrates June and her dead mother, Loretta, who was black. It is a catalog of physical, emotional, and verbal abuse from Kathleen, abetted by June's stepsister, Megan, and enabled by the obliviousness of June's white father. And yes, June's preteen friend and eventual boyfriend, Blister Wicks, a poor, creative white boy, unwaveringly supports her throughout. In chapters labeled "before" readers see the unrelenting misery of June's life, while briefer, intermittent chapters labeled "after" take them to a time after an unspecified trauma. When that reveal comes, readers may well feel sucker-punched at its disingenuousness, as the author writes around the most obvious aspect of this story. June's abuse at home, bullying and neglect at school, and what happens after are specifically misogynoirist, or anti-black female, thrown into high relief due to the lack of any other living characters of color in June's story. This is a disservice to readers, especially considering such works and resources as Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow, Ava DuVernay's 13th, and African American Policy Forum, a pro-Black-women-and-girls advocacy organization. What's left for readers from this lack of nuance is the glaring voyeurism. Interracial love—and racial silence—simply aren't enough. (Fiction. 14-adult)

Kirkus Reviews

Read More