When John Thomas, of Oreland, was a child growing up in Charlestown, West Virginia, his elementary school teacher prepared an interesting exercise for the children. Students put messages with a self-addressed, stamped postcard into balloons, the teacher inflated them with helium, and off they traveled into the atmosphere. Each message asked that anyone finding a balloon drop the card into the mail and note where they lived.

“The teacher put pins in a map showing where they came back from,” Thomas recalled in an interview with the Local. “They came back from as far away as Ohio and Kentucky. I never got any of my own back, but it was an exciting thing to do, hoping you’d hear from someone far away.”

After Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, Thomas’ two daughters asked him why. “My daughters asked me why Russia was destroying hospitals, churches, and schools and killing so many people,” Thomas said. “The more I thought about it, the more the idea of writing a book came to me.”

And the more he learned, the deeper his interest in the subject went. “I thought I’d write a children’s story in which an innocent child lets the Russian people know what their government is doing. I did extensive research into Ukrainian culture and history and religion. My best friend and roommate from college [Lehigh University], Paul Pawlenko, was the inspiration for my main character. He has relatives in Ukraine, and speaks Ukrainian and Russian. His parents came here from Ukraine after World War II. He taught me so much about Ukrainian culture.”

After many months, Thomas produced “Three Yellow Balloons from Ukraine,” a beautiful hardback book with illustrations by Boulder, Colorado-based artist Megan Gael McCarthy.

In the book, Anna, a Ukrainian girl, learns about the Russian bombing of her city, Kharkiv, and the Russian people’s ignorance of the war due to their government-controlled media. She sends off a letter and photos of her devastated city in a balloon, hoping her message will reach a receptive audience. Nadia, a Russian girl, finds the balloon and learns of the destruction caused by her government.

Pawlenko said he was humbled that the book’s main character is based on him. “When John told me that,” he wrote in an email to the Local, “I became emotional thinking about the millions of Ukrainians, many of whom lived in villages and small agricultural cities, who have been spending time in dark hiding places and tunnels under ground each day and night for years, not minutes, hours or days. ... As Jesus shared with his disciples in John 15:13: There is no greater love than for a man to give his life for his friends. I now know that the second greatest praise/love that one person can show to another person is lifting them up through words.”

Another admirer of the book, Mary Kalyna, a long-time Mt. Airy resident and activist who has been leading antiwar rallies in Center City since the war began, told the Local, “I read the book and thought it was a sweet, thoughtful and hopeful story. … In general I liked it very much, and I don’t know that there is anything out there that even attempts to deal with this. I think I will donate a copy to the library at the Ukrainian Center in Jenkintown.”

Thomas comes by his writing honestly; his late mother, Nancy Smith Thomas, edited a cookbook,”Mountain Measures,” which is the best-selling cookbook in West Virginia history, and another book titled, “Moravian Christmas in the South.”

Thomas’ own day job is at a company Data Logic, which makes barcode scanners. He has been working there for 35 years.

Thomas and his wife Mandy Minger have two daughters, Abby and Tessa, both students at Gwynedd Mercy Academy.

“Three Yellow Balloons from Ukraine” is available through barnesandnoble.com. All proceeds from the book will be donated to Save the Children. Len Lear can be reached at LenLear@chestnuthilllocal.com.