THE MAKING OF BUTTERFLIES

Following Magnolia Flower (2022), Kendi retells another work by Hurston, this time a tale of how butterflies were created, from her folktale anthology Mules and Men.

The Creator—a Black, childlike, winged person—stares upon a newly created Earth. Bored, the Creator begins to make flowers and plants, which grow every which way. However, before the Creator’s work is finished, the flowers complain of being lonely. So the Creator grabs their shears and snips pieces off everything—the sky, animals, plants, and more. As the scraps fly through the skies, the Creator calls them “flutter-bys,” but they are misheard, and the people refer to them as butterflies instead. And so we have butterflies, which come in various colors and sizes. Rendered in acrylic paint, pencil, pastel, and Adobe Photoshop, the artwork creates an eye-catching collage of images in every spread. Just as folktales are greatly exaggerated, so are Yangni’s brightly colored butterflies and flowers that flow throughout, similar to the tale’s narration. Kendi expertly distills this word-of-mouth tale for young readers with direct quotes from Hurston’s book and uses the African American vernacular, as Hurston did. His author’s note gives readers the backstory regarding how the tale was told to Hurston. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

An old tale is given fresh new life.