“Like butterflies, those who survive burns defy their fragility to migrate large distances and find warm climates”.

The book ‘Butterflies’ is set in Sydney, NSW. ‘Butterflies’ is about a seventeen-year-old girl named Katherine, who at a young age fell into a pit of fire and got severely burnt which left her with scarring all over her body. This book explains her journey growing up with these scars and the effect it has on her appearance and her approach towards life.

Katherine has a mother that would do absolutely anything to make her happy, a sister who means the world to her and friends that accept her no matter what she looks like. But still this isn’t enough for Katherine. Sure, Katherine is grateful for all these things that she has but what she mainly wants is to be beautiful. She wants boys to accept her, her scars to disappear and to be able to wear what she wants without being self-conscious about her appearance.

She has had many operations, but she still isn’t satisfied with the end results.

I would recommend this book to the ages 13 and up because I believe that this age group would be able to relate to the story more, and also because of the mature scenes located in the book. The introduction of the story was a bit long and slow, but as I kept reading the book became more interesting. I really admire Katherine’s persistence and strength to be able to try and live a normal life with everything happening around her. This book really makes you think about what’s actually important in life and how lucky some of us have it compared to others.

Michaela, Year 9

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Mrs Osborne’s comment:

Susanne Gervay, on her website, tells the story of how the Butterflies story came to be written. Kim Phuc, who’s pictured in the article,  is well known to many older people around the world  as the burn victim who’s in the famous photo taken in Vietnam. Take a look here. Susanne also wrote to Aquinas students, telling them about writing the story. Scroll down to see her response.

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Touching? Life story? Make us think? Until reading this book I didn’t realize what some people are actually going through every day. Katherine had fallen, fallen into acid flames when she was younger. Can you imagine what that’s like, having to live every day onwards covered in burns? Everyone judging you, talking about you, how ugly you are… this is a story about accepting who you are and what you look like. Finding out who your true friends are and loving you for being yourself. The story is set in school mostly, or at Katherine’s house.

“The petrol burnt fiercely. Acid flames covered Katherine’s brown hair and her head, burning her hair, her face, her body. Acid flames covered her arms and her little body’s chubby folds and soft baby skin.”

Family will always be there for you, well they are meant to. However Katherine’s dad had left after he saw her fall, abandoned the family. Why do we fight with the people that love us the most? We fight with our families because we know they will stick around and not leave like everyone else.

Katherine’s best friend, Jessie, seems perfect to Katherine. Katherine would love to be as pretty as her… jealousy. They both go to school and both want to have someone to be there for them. The boys they know just call Katherine the rudest names. Hearing those names made Katherine lose all confidence. She needs people in her life to boost up her happiness and self-worth.

I would recommend teen readers to have a go at this book. I liked it because it is about self-acceptance and in high school it’s a good time to realize who you are now, rather than in ten years’ time. In school, people judge you all the time, so after reading this,  you will think again about what you actually look like compared to everyone else. ‘Butterflies’ is a moving story. I rate this book 3 ½ out of 5 stars.

Valentina, Year 9

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Confucius once said, “Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.”

Katherine believes that no one will understand her and her life. When she was three years old she was severely burnt and ever since has had surgery, hoping one day she will be a normal teenager.  Being bullied at school, feeling the need to cover her scars on her face and neck area with her long hair, insecurity grows.

She enjoys the story from Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, unlike her best friend Jessie. Although this book shows the emotional journey that Katherine has gone through with her parents being separated when she was younger and her appearance that she hates, this book can be confusing.

The author has used italics to indicate flashbacks in Katherine’s life and then changes to normal font writing to continue the novel without any notice, which does and can confuse readers. Katherine slowly accepts who she is and she and her family start to become closer before her grandparents visit her in Australia for Christmas but before that happens, Katherine finally found her dad and has several questions to ask him as to why he left her mother and her and older sister Rachel.

Operations are not what any teenager should go through, but unfortunately Katherine was one of those people and life for her will never be normal until she lives and appreciates what and who she has.  Denniscia, year 9