Butterflies on the First Day of School

Silvestro (The Christmas Tree Who Loved Trains) puts a fanciful spin on a familiar metaphor in this tale about a girl who’s impatient to start school. Rosie diligently practices classroom skills, including hand raising, but her confidence vanishes on her first day, and she insists she doesn’t feel well. She’s puzzled when her mother tells her she has butterflies in her stomach, but while chatting to a friendly girl on the school bus, Rosie finally understands when butterflies (seemingly visible only to her) flutter from her mouth. Throughout the morning, “butterflies rumbled in Rosie’s belly” and occasionally slip out, but by recess she feels fine and reaches out to a forlorn classmate standing alone—whose own butterflies escape. Animator Chen uses bold crayon hues to invigorate her renderings of Rosie’s changeable emotions and to showcase a striking kaleidoscope of butterflies. A cheering first-day story. Ages 3–up. [em](May) [/em]