SuitabookPaper Butterflies
Lisa Heathfield
- Reading
- Read alongside a trusted adult if helpful, agree a pause signal before starting, and check in after difficult sections. The alternating timelines make it sensible to discuss revelations as they emerge.
- Themes
- Abuse, silence and responsibility: June is abused by her stepmother and sometimes her stepsister; her father does not recognise what is happening, and later sections involve conversations about forgiveness. The book’s stance on this remains unclear.
- Race, identity and representation: June is mixed race, with a white father and Black mother, and experiences racial denigration connected to abuse and feeling like an outsider. Racialised abuse is clearly condemned through its harmful effects, but the treatment may leave questions about racial context and representation.
- Safety, friendship and hope: June meets Blister, who supports her, and spends time with his family and in a woodland den where she feels safe and accepted. The book presents this favourably.
- Worth knowing
- Expect graphic and emotionally heavy material involving physical, emotional and verbal abuse, bullying, racial denigration, death and suicide; there is also a little gently handled sexual content.