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At nine years old, it is hard to understand the news that you might not ever go back home. 

In this tender and observant coming-of-age memoir, an American daughter of Ukrainian immigrants, Sophia Tyutyunnyk, writes about the anxious and formative months she spent living in Ukraine during the final stages of her family’s path to legal residency in the United States. Named for the chestnut flower that is a symbol of Kyiv, Candle on the Tree takes the reader on a journey through loss, homesickness, realization, and resilience  as Tyutyunnyk discovers the motherland of her parents. But even as the shy nine-year old from small-town Maine finds deep roots in Ukraine, she copes with the agonizing uncertainty of being uprooted.  

What if Sophia has to return to America without her parents? Can she belong in Ukraine?  Is the girl on the marshrutka in Kyiv the same person as the one who left her fourth-grade life  in America?  

Against the backdrop of a war that has been raging for years, Tyutyunnyk introduces the reader to the resilient and creative people of Ukraine and the culturally rich tapestry of the country’s capital city.  

MEMOIR | Paperback | 2025 | ISBN: 979-8-9909764-4-3

Age Recommendation: Middle and High School

Discussion Questions

• A process that was supposed to take two weeks turned into ninety days. Discuss the ins and outs of the immigration process the author and her family had to deal with. How did the authorities of the immigration process treat the author and her family throughout the memoir, in both Ukraine and the United States? What were the privileges and lack of privileges in regards to access the author and her family had to navigate?

• What are the various ways grief is experienced in this memoir? Talk about the losses that resonated with you, sound familiar to you, or that you have follow up questions about.

• Analyze the poem written for the author’s sister, Diana. Compare and contrast the experiences of the two siblings with immigration in this memoir. What stands out?

• Compare and contrast the ways the author felt being Ukrainian and being American. What did you notice?

• What does the author write about in regards to the violence and war in Ukraine that still takes place to this day?

Writing Prompts

• What does it mean for you to go “into yourself” when navigating a new place? For better or for worse? For the in-between?

• Write about the ways food can connect us to different definitions of “home;” especially newer experiences with the definitions of “home.”

• How does your religious, nonreligious, spiritual, or other worldview help take care of you and/or your loved ones?

• Write about how nature plays a role in where you live.

• Write about an act of resistance or your response to oppressors who have tried to take or subdue your identity.

Group Activities

• Write a poem inspired by one of the writing prompts. Once the poem is complete, draw/paint/sketch an image that coordinates with the poem. Take a picture of a setting that reminds you of home. Write a prose narrative in response to the picture.

• Make a list of foods that shape who you are, and write about that relationship.

• From one of the themes in the book (grief, home, identity, etc.), write a short song OR make a playlist of already existing songs that touch upon similar themes.