With a Butterfly's Wings

by Pilar López Ávila, Zuzanna Celej (Illustrator), Jon Brokenbrow (Translator)

Overview

Winner of the 2023 Independent Publisher Books Award and awarded at the 2023 Cuatro Gatos Foundation Awards

With a Butterfly’s Wings is a tender story about a girl who loses her beloved grandmother and finds comfort in remembering her through what she learned from her.

It was my grandmother who taught me to listen to the song of the birds. Throw her eyes I learned to contemplate those little birds and to perceive what made them so special. Together we heard the blackbird sing among the rumble of the city that was slowly awakening, trying to guess where the bird was. Grandma was my best teacher: she taught me all the secrets of nature, the magic of flowers, the spirit of monarch butterflies. For this reason, even if she is now gone, she will live in me through the song of nature.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9788419464552
Publisher:	Cuento de Luz
Publication date:	05/07/2024
Product dimensions:	8.40(w) x 10.10(h) x 0.30(d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

María del Pilar López Ávila (Cartagena, Spain 1969) is an award-winning writer of children’s stories. Her passion for children's literature began when she was very young, and at the age of nine, she was already writing children's stories. In December 2010, she was awarded the third position in the Joaquín Sama Awards for Educational Innovation in the category “A More Civic and Caring Cchool,” for the project entitled, “Use of Waste Materials.” She has published Ayobami and the Names of Animals (2017), winner of the International Latino Book Awards in 2018, and The Kite of Dreams (2019) with Cuento de Luz.

Ávila is married and the mother of 3 children. She has a Ph.D. in Veterinary Medicine, currently working as a Biology and Geology teacher at a high school in Cáceres. She is also the director of the Teatro Paraíso.

Zuzanna Celej is an award-winning illustrator. She has a BA Honors in Fine Arts from the University of Barcelona and majored in Illustration at the Llotja Art School in Barcelona. She specializes in illustration, fine art photography, and printmaking. Her work has been exhibited in Spain, France, England, Italy, Poland, and the United States.

Celej is currently dedicated to the publishing world with more than 50 titles inside and outside the country. She has been recognized with national and international awards, including the New York City Big Book Award for Best Illustrated Album, The Map of Good Memories (Cuento de Luz, 2016). She combines illustration projects with teaching Plastic Arts in several cultural venues and in his own studio, as well as running workshops in Art Schools Masters.

Editorial Reviews

The Polish artist Zuzanna Celej captivates us with her unique sensitivity and exquisite taste. (…) Essential." —Canal Lector

From the Publisher

2022-03-02
In this Spanish import, translated by Brokenbrow, a girl learns about birds, flowers, and butterflies from her grandmother.

The girl narrates, describing her grandmother’s teachings about the creatures and blossoms they see on their walks. She learns about the colors of swallows and swifts and that hummingbirds build their nests with moss and spiderwebs. Her grandmother teaches her to identify the songs of blue herons and robins. Grandma’s hand-weaving skills are a central motif: As the pair (both White) gaze at finches, the girl exclaims: “Grandma, it looks like you wove them with your red thread!” In Celej’s elegant mixed-media illustrations, Grandma’s thread is a visual throughline connecting her, her granddaughter, and the natural world. Pale washes in earth colors define delicate city and woodland scenes, with brighter hues reserved for winged creatures. As pages turn, the girl’s deepening knowledge—and increasingly solitary walks—become apparent. “Very old by now,” Grandma has impaired hearing, sight, and movement. She tells her granddaughter that “the day it’s my turn to go, I’ll fly around you first.” Later, a swallow repeatedly circles the girl in the schoolyard, gently symbolizing Grandma’s death. The girl vows that when it’s her turn, she’ll “fly with a butterfly’s wings.” Teachers and caregivers looking for books to help discuss death with children will appreciate this subtle story about the treasured memories that help us endure loss. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A lovely, contemplative tribute to intergenerational love that invites reverence for nature’s cycles. (Picture book. 4-8)

Kirkus Reviews