In this warmly illustrated, emotional book, a young storyteller and her family prepare to emigrate from their ancient Cochin community by the sea in India to Moshav Nevatim in the Israeli desert. Leah’s parents say they are “coming home” to Israel, but Leah doesn’t want to leave the familiar traditions or surroundings of Cochin. A blue butterfly reassures her that the stories of Cochin and the Torah will travel inside her. On the kibbutz, however, Hebrew doesn’t yet feel right on Leah’s tongue. She misses the chanting sounds of Malayalam, and the air in Israel is so dry. Leah is wistfully drawing the blue butterfly one day when an admiring neighbor stops by and brings her to a grove of olive trees, where butterflies gather. Her new friend tells her that, like the trees planted by kibbutz dwellers, she, too, will be able to flourish and make this place her home. With the return of her magical butterfly friend, Leah now knows how to begin.
Originally from Buenos Aires herself, educator Ariana Mizrahi creates a narrative of displacement that reads clearly and compactly. She reassures the young girl at the same time that she acknowledges her loneliness and feelings of loss. In exciting, double-page spreads, Siona Benjamin’s illustrations reflect her own experiences growing up Jewish in India. Swirling clothes, dancing braids and leaves, scenes inside an ancient synagogue, and an inviting olive grove all offer a glimpse of life into mid-twentieth-century India and Israel.
Sharon Elswit, author of The Jewish Story Finder, now resides in San Francisco, where she shares tales aloud in a local JCC preschool and volunteers with 826 Valencia to help students write their own stories and poems.
