The Butterfly

Title: The Butterfly

Author: Patricia Polacco

Grade Level: 3 – 6

Genre: Historical Fiction

Are you looking for a way to introduce some of the horrors of World War II and the Nazi’s to your students? Do you want to give them a view from a child’s perspective that they can relate to? Then pick up The Butterfly by Patricia Polacco. This is a wonderful and sad book about France during World War II.

            The Butterfly by Patricia Polacco is set in France during World War II. The story begins in Monique’s bedroom. Monique is a young French girl who wakes up in the middle of the night to see a ghostly figure sitting on the end of her bed looking out the window. The figure was a girl who looked to be about Monique’s age and she was petting her cat, Pinouff. When she asks the girl who she is the girl runs away. The next day Monique tells her mother, Marcel Solliliage, what she saw and her mother gets angry and tells her that it was just a dream. Monique thinks that it is very unlike her mother to get angry like this but can’t wait to go off to school and tell her best friend Denise about the ghost. On their way home from school the girls stop at a local candy store where Monsieur Marks gives them each a piece of candy. The girls notice that the store is much more empty than usual. When they leave they see tall boots, the Nazi soldiers, walking up the hill towards them. The girls pretend not to notice them because that is what they have learned to do. When the girls look back they see Monsieur Marks being taken out of his store by the soldiers. They watch them push him to the ground and kick him hard in the ribs then a car pulls up and they throw him inside of it. When they arrive at Monique’s house they are crying and tell her mother what has happened. This is when the girls find out that Monsieur Marks was a “Jew.” Monique didn’t see the ghost again for several nights until she awoke one night to see her sitting on the window seat. This time when she spoke to the girl she didn’t let her run away and asked her what he name was and where she was from. The little girl didn’t speak at first but eventually told Monique that her name was Sevrine and that she has lived in many different places since the war. When Monique asked her where she lived now Sevrine said, “Here.” Monique was confused because she lived here and Sevrine motioned to have Monique follow her. They went down into the living room where there was a rug pulled back and door that lead down into a part of the cellar the Monique didn’t even know existed. Sevrine explained that her mother and father had been living there for a long time and that the Nazi’s were hunting them because they are Jews. Monique didn’t understand how her mother could not know that there were people living in the basement of their house but Sevrine told her that her mother did know and that Sevrine was told to never go into Monique’s room when she was there. Sevrine told Monique that her mother didn’t tell her because she was protecting her, it would put Monique in danger if she knew. The next day Monique doesn’t say anything about it to her mother and instead just goes out to the garden to pick flowers for the table. While she is out there she sees a butterfly and as she watching it Nazi soldiers come over and crush it with their hands right in front of her. She runs back into the house crying and asks her mother if they did that same thing to Monsieur Marks. She now understands the fear in Sevrine’s and realizes that she must keep their secret at all costs. The girls meet up several more times at night making sure to be quiet enough to not wake anyone up then one night they are looking out the window and they see the man who lives across the street looking right at them. They run into Marcel’s room and wake her up. She tells Sevrine that she and her family are no longer safe anymore and that they must be moved that night. They run into the cellar and being to bury everything that would look like someone had lived there. Sevrine’s parents were going separately from Sevrine and she was going to go with Marcel and Monique and they would meet up again later. They walked very far until they reached the countryside. They sent Sevrine off with the people that were going to bring her to her parents but first Monique and her exchanged gifts. Monique gave Sevrine her cat Pinouff and Sevrine gave Monique a gold chain that had the gold Star of David on it. They said goodbye and Monique and her mother made their way back home. When they get to the train station they get separated by the massive crowds of people and Monique ends up on a train without her mother. She eventually Monique finds her way home and meets her mother there. After a couple of weeks go by, Monique is thinking about Sevrine and her family and wishing for a sign so she can know that they are safe. One day, while out in the garden with her mother they see a butterfly fluttering into the garden then another and then suddenly they are surrounded by butterflies and Monique knows it’s a sign that they are safe.

            The book The Butterfly by Patricia Polacco does a wonderful job of accurately portraying France during World War II. This story is a retelling of a friendship that her Aunt Monique had while living in France at this time. This story is incredibly emotional and pulls the reader in just on the very first page. I wouldn’t recommend using this book for students younger than third grade because it can at times be terrifying the way that Polacco portrays the Nazi soldiers. The story also so has a mature theme and mature emotions which makes it just as enjoyable for the adults reading the story to their children. I would use this book in my classroom as a read aloud to introduce the students to a firsthand story about life during WWII. I believe that it would allow them to relate more to the events of the time because it’s from the perspective of a young girl.

            The Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks for ELA that this book meets are:

ELA RL 3.3 Describe characters in a story (e.g., their traits, motivations, or feelings) and explain how their actions contribute to the sequence of events.

ELA RI 3.3 Describe the relationship between a series of historical events, scientific ideas or concepts, or steps in technical procedures in a text, using language that pertains to time, sequence, and cause/effect.