Butterfly Girl

Olivia and her butterfly friends spend all of their time together, until one day everything changes, and Olivia and her mother move to an apartment in the city. Olivia is heartbroken because she doesn’t want to leave her butterfly friends behind, but her mother assures her that she will make new friends in the city.

When Olivia and her mum arrive in the city, it’s so grey and gloomy that everyone is sheltering inside. Olivia waits for new friends to come and play, but no-one appears.

So Olivia stands on her empty concrete apartment balcony and calls out to her butterfly friends — because they always come when she needs them. But this time, even her butterfly friends don’t appear.

Then Olivia remembers that butterflies need colourful nectar plants, a puddle pool and rocks to rest their wings on, but Olivia doesn’t have a garden anymore. She decides to build a butterfly balcony garden using whatever she can find. Olivia waits and waits and waits, but her butterflies stay away.

Just as Olivia is about to lose hope, a gust of wind blows flowers from her balcony garden across the grey sky and onto her neighbours’ balconies. People of all ages and cultural ethnicities appear on their balconies to pick up the flowers, and Olivia suddenly knows exactly what she needs to do to attract friends, both human and butterfly.

Butterfly Girl by Ashling Kwok is a charming tale about change, resilience, and the magic of friendship, beautifully capturing the journey of finding one's place in a new world.