What does it look like when a story meant to connect people across the world moves off the page and into a room full of local families?
At the White Lake Community Library, it looked like children and adults leaning in to listen and beginning to understand that kids their age are living very different lives just an ocean away.
Kelley Peel talks about a page in Seeds of the Sun while Ukrainian Storytime attendees look on
Ukrainian Storytime was not just a reading. It was an experience designed to turn awareness into connection and connection into something more meaningful.
Led by West Michigan educator and author Kelley Peel, the event centered around Seeds of the Sun, a children’s book created to support a Ukrainian school community. The book itself has already created a direct line of impact, helping fund computers and resources for students in Ukraine while connecting them with families here in West Michigan.
Kelley Peel with Seeds of the Sun book during Ukrainian Storytime
(You can learn more about the story behind the book and its impact at the link at the end of this article.)
Rather than simply reading the story, Peel guided the audience through it, inviting children to imagine the journey and engage with it along the way.
She introduced them to Charlie, a young fox from Michigan, and Sophia, his cousin in Ukraine. As the story unfolded, children followed along as Charlie traveled across the ocean, bringing pieces of Michigan with him while discovering a new culture in return.
They learned about familiar landscapes like sand dunes and wetlands, while also being introduced to places that felt entirely new. Pink lakes shaped by natural elements. Sunflower fields that stretch for miles and carry deep cultural meaning.
Peel explaining the similarities of Ukraine and Michigan
Rather than passively listening, the children became part of the experience.
They were asked questions. They shared what they noticed. They imagined what it would feel like to visit a place so different, yet connected through simple things like food, family, and storytelling.
Through that process, the story became more than words. It became a bridge.
Only after that shared understanding was built did the event shift into something more hands on.
Tables filled with crafts invited children to continue exploring Ukrainian culture. They decorated eggs using traditional symbols and created their own interpretations of what they had just learned.
Attendees participating in activities
Nearby, another kind of connection was taking shape.
Families were invited to taste Ukrainian foods, including nalysnyky made using a recipe found in the back of Seeds of the Sun. The connection between story and experience was intentional. What children had just heard, they could now see, touch, and taste.
Traditional cakes, prepared and brought by a Ukrainian friend of Peel’s who moved to the United States about ten years ago, added another layer of authenticity to the event. These were not just examples of culture. They were pieces of someone’s lived experience, shared with a new community.
One moment that stood out came as families learned about Ukrainian Easter customs.
“You need to try 12 pieces,” said Svetlana O’Lonergan, Peel’s friend that moved to the US from Ukraine about ten years ago, describing a tradition of sharing cakes to represent the twelve apostles.
It was a small detail, but one that opened the door to something bigger. Culture was not being explained from a distance. It was being experienced together.
That sense of connection extended beyond the room.
As part of the event, attendees were able to hear directly from Ukrainian students through recorded messages, sharing what their daily lives look like and what they hope others understand about them.
In those moments, the distance between West Michigan and Ukraine began to feel smaller.
What could have remained an abstract idea became something personal.
That shift is at the heart of why this event matters.
Peel shared how students in Ukraine reacted when they learned people in Michigan were thinking about them.
“They didn’t understand why people from Michigan would care so much about their children,” she said.
That reaction reveals something important. Connection is not automatic. It is built.
For the children in the room, this was not a lesson in geography. It was an introduction to empathy. It was a chance to see that the world is larger than their own experience, but also more connected than it might seem.
For families, it offered a simple way to engage.
Listen to the story. Ask questions. Try something new. Share the experience.
None of those actions are large on their own. But together, they begin to close the gap between awareness and understanding.
That is where the real impact lives.
In a time when global challenges can feel distant, moments like this bring the focus back to something tangible. People learning about other people. Children recognizing themselves in someone else’s story.
It is easy to think that meaningful change requires something big.
Ukrainian Storytime suggests something different.
Sometimes, it starts with a story.
And from there, connection begins to grow.
Learn More
To read more about the story behind Seeds of the Sun and how it is supporting students in Ukraine, visit:
From West Michigan to Ukraine: How One Children’s Book Is Turning Connection into Action
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