Butterflies for Kiri - Hardcover

Cathryn Falwell has written and illustrated many award-winning books for children. Her most recent books are David's Drawings and Turtle Splash (Greenwillow, Fall 2001). Other best-selling books include Feast for 10, which was featured on the PBS children's program "Barney;" We Have A Baby, a Children's Book-of-the Month Club selection; Word Wizard, a Notable Children's Book in the Language Arts; and The Letters Jester, a Reading Rainbow book.

Cathryn Falwell has written and illustrated many award-winning books for children. Her most recent books are David's Drawings and Turtle Splash (Greenwillow, Fall 2001). Other best-selling books include Feast for 10, which was featured on the PBS children's program "Barney;" We Have A Baby, a Children's Book-of-the Month Club selection; Word Wizard, a Notable Children's Book in the Language Arts; and The Letters Jester, a Reading Rainbow book.

Kindergarten-Grade 3-A Japanese-American child receives an origami kit for her birthday. The brightly colored papers are "as thin as butterfly wings" and she handles them with care and reverence, spreading them out "like a rainbow." Kiri pores over the diagrams in the instruction book and tries to "Fold crisply!" and "Crease sharply!" The steps become more complicated and when the delicate sheet tears, she cries in frustration. Afraid of ripping another piece, she puts the papers away. As time passes, Kiri enjoys other artistic pursuits, like painting and chalk drawing, but she is still intrigued by the art of origami and continues to practice her folds on notebook paper. When her watercolors run together and make a soggy hole in the center of her picture, she finds another use for the origami papers. She cuts out flower shapes and as she glues them on her painting, "The colors began to dance." Feeling emboldened, she selects a sheet of yellow and successfully folds it into a butterfly. Falwell's cut- and-torn-paper collages are the perfect medium for the story. Kiri's disappointments are realistically captured, as is her creative spirit. Instructions on how to make an origami butterfly are included. Use this title with Virginia Kroll's Pink Paper Swans (Eerdmans, 1994) and Rosemary Wells's Yoko's Paper Cranes (Hyperion, 2001) to introduce this ancient art.
Linda Ludke, London Public Library, Ontario, Canada
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