Butterfly on the Wind
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
A magical picture book about a Deaf girl who creates a butterfly with Sign Language and sends it on a journey around the world.
On the day of the talent show, Aurora's hands tremble. No matter how hard she tries to sign, her fingers stumble over one another and the words just won't come. But as she’s about to give up, she spots a butterfly.
Using her hands to sign the ASL word for "butterfly," Aurora sends a magical butterfly of her own into the world, inspiring Deaf people across the globe to add their own. The butterflies grow in numbers and strength as they circle back to Aurora, bolstering her with the love and support of her worldwide Deaf community.
Deaf picture book creators author Adam Pottle and artist Ziyue Chen combine powerful text and sweeping art into a moving story of resilience and self-belief.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Two Deaf creators celebrate sign language in a buoyant story starring butterflies—further described in an author's note as a "central symbol of Deaf culture." Anxious in advance of performing a fairy tale at a talent show, "saying the words with her hands," Aurora finds that her fingers "stumble over one another." She wishes she could fly away, and remembers her father telling her that "some people say a butterfly's wings create a wind that carries across the world." When Aurora signs butterfly, the motion creates a breeze, shaped like the insect, that travels globally, joined by those of other signing children, until the many butterflies return to Aurora's talent show as a "magnificent" surprise. Using a folkloric narrative pattern, Pottle unifies those using sign language by way of supplying a global, community-based balm for Aurora's jitters. Chen's cheery digitally rendered illustrations emphasize movement in flowing hair and water, signing hands of various skin tones, and swirls that symbolize the sparkling butterfly wind. An author's note concludes. Ages 3–6.
