THE GOLDEN BUTTERFLY

A picture book about two butterflies who challenge social norms and become friends.

Joy, a golden butterfly, happens upon a cluster of blue insects like her and attempts to strike up a conversation. However, they insult and scorn her for being a different color. Joy is crestfallen, but it doesn’t stop her from chatting with William, a blue butterfly, the next morning. William apologizes for the more closed-minded members of his group, and becomes close friends with Joy, and they live happily ever after. Additional illustrations on the final pages show more butterflies, implied to be Joy and William’s children, with mosaicked yellow, blue, and green wings. Overall, Lewinson’s book makes an inoffensive, superficial statement regarding racism and diversity. However, although the story pointedly addresses the color difference of the butterfly wings, Griffin’s illustrations portray the characters’ pale faces as seemingly identical, with no clear differentiation among them, which has the effect of undermining the message. The book also seems to assume that young readers will understand color theory, which may not be the case. Even so, this story is an acceptable tool for teaching young children a lesson about being inclusive and kind.

A pleasant but unevenly executed story about accepting differences.