Where Butterflies Fill the Sky

A New York Times/New York Public Library Best Illustrated Children's Book
One of NPR's Best Books of 2022
Chicago Public Library's Best of the Best Informational Books for Younger Readers of 2022
A School Library Journal Best Book of 2022
The Society of Illustrators' Dilys Evans Founders Award Winner 2022
Zahra Marwan is a recipient of the United Nations Minority Artist Award on Statelessness


An evocative picture book debut that tells the true story of the author's immigration from Kuwait to the United States.

Zahra lives in a beautiful place where the desert reaches all the way to the sea and one hundred butterflies always fill the sky. When Baba and Mama tell her that their family is no longer welcome here and they must leave, Zahra wonders if she will ever feel at home again--and what about the people she will leave behind? But when she and her family arrive in a new desert, she's surprised to find magic all around her. Home might not be as far away as she thought it would be.

With spare, moving text and vivid artwork, Zahra Marwan tells the true story of her and her family's immigration from Kuwait, where they were considered stateless, to New Mexico, where together they made a new home.

"Utterly original and enjoyable from start to finish." -Betsy Bird, librarian, book critic, and author of Long Road to the Circus