Threads: Zlata’s Ukrainian Shirt

The threads on Zlata's beautiful birthday blouse were stitched by her mother. “Red is for love, and black is for sadness,” her papa says.

Mama warns her not to show it off. Ever since the Communists came from Russia to Ukraine, they prohibited the teaching of Ukrainian culture.

Now, in the Ukrainian Famine-Genocide of the 1930s, they've even taken the grain from Zlata's family's fields.

But despite the danger, her parents refuse to give up their art, language, and beliefs. As Zlata works to help her community survive, she finds that the dream of freedom is stitched deeper into the Ukrainian spirit than she could ever imagine. Drawing from her grandparents' experience of the Famine-Genocide, Maslo weaves a thoughtful story that dares us not to forget the pain of the past as it informs the present conflict in Ukraine and inspires hope for the future.