Frank is a Butterfly

LoveReading4Kids Says

Written and illustrated by Alex Latimer, Frank is a Butterfly tells a warm, glowy tale of feeling happy in your own skin (and with your own wings!). Think of it as a valuable flipped reinvention of The Ugly Duckling, in that Frank’s story shows how it’s not at all necessary to transform into something showy to feel happy and enjoy the wonders of the world.  

Illustrated in a gorgeously rich palette, the scene is set with ten caterpillars munching on a breakfast of leaves. Variously stripy and spotty, big and small, long and short, hirsute and hairless, one of them, Frank, has no distinctive markings to speak of. While Frank’s brighter fellow caterpillars excitedly imagine the kind of butterfly they’ll transform into (the prettiest or the most handsome, magnificent or fabulous), Frank “doesn’t say a word”. Rather, he’s quietly content to be a “plain, medium-sized caterpillar on a leaf in the bright sunshine”. 

When the caterpillars emerge from their chrysalises, all but Frank are decidedly dissatisfied with their lot. They feel let down by their huge expectations. In contrast, Frank is overjoyed to emerge with new (plain) wings that enable him to take to the skies. Thankfully, through Frank’s example, the others come to realise what really matters — having the freedom to explore the beauty of the world, free from the hampering consequences of comparing yourself with others, and free from feeling that you’re never enough. Beautiful!

Joanne Owen

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