The Rock and the Butterfly

Written by Kathy Stinson

Illustrated by Brooke Kerrigan

Orca Book Publishers

978-1-4598-3700-3

32 pp.

Ages 6-8

October 2024 

 

There was a rock and there was a butterfly. Together their story is far greater than the sum of their parts. 

From The Rock and the Butterfly, written by Kathy Stinson, illustrated by Brooke Kerrigan

Once there was a rock that sat solidly on the ground.

 

And once there was a butterfly that flitted and fluttered everywhere.

The contrast in the rock and the butterfly is best understood when the butterfly tires from too much flitting and tucks itself into a groove in the rock to rest and keep the world from spinning. The rock offers comfort and safety. That is, until one day, the rock is gone.

From The Rock and the Butterfly, written by Kathy Stinson, illustrated by Brooke Kerrigan

The butterfly really needs the rock and it is perplexed because a "rock was always where you left it...wasn't it?" Bereft, the butterfly looks for that comfort and safety elsewhere. It tries a hanging leaf and the space between blades of grass, but it cannot find a refuge that replicates that rest and security.

From The Rock and the Butterfly, written by Kathy Stinson, illustrated by Brooke Kerrigan

Still, relegated to take shelter on the ground itself, the butterfly finds that this last resort offers new possibilities to feel the warmth of the sun and the calm of the moonlight and get just a bit of that quivering joy back into its wings. The rock may be gone but the ground that cradled it can now offer support to another.

Oh my. There's no way a reader would know that this is a story about friendship and support, but also loss and grief and finally acceptance. That's a lot for a picture book. But it's not an "in-your-face" message about dealing with loss. Author Kathy Stinson has given younger readers a lovely story about two friends but, with a little help from an older reader, adult or otherwise, they may be able to see beyond the obvious and see a deeper relationship. They could see sadness and coping, joy and growth. Kathy Stinson, author extraordinaire of everything from picture books like Red is Best, The Man with the Violin and The Dog Who Wanted to Fly to young adult novels like What Happened to Ivy, always finds a way to tell important stories but in discrete plots and, often, with few words that are staggeringly impactful. It may be a story about a rock and a butterfly, but it goes beyond that simple premise, and speaks to the connection that bolsters life.

From The Rock and the Butterfly, written by Kathy Stinson, illustrated by Brooke Kerrigan

Brooke Kerrigan, who illustrated one of my favourite Christmas stories (The Christmas Wind by Stephanie Simpson McLellan), uses a blend of watercolour, gouache, pencil crayon and ink, with digital layering to achieve extraordinarily simple but robust artwork. As the title suggests, there are few characters that progress the story line, but Brooke Kerrigan focuses on the butterfly as it struggles, despairs, and rallies. Her nuance in the butterfly's disposition keeps the focus on that character while placing it in a vast and gorgeous world of land and sea, sky and weather. (Just look at those flowers in the illustration above.)

 

The Rock and the Butterfly released today, and I hope that parents and teachers will grab it for meaningful discussions. I believe that it's a story that encompasses much depth that would make it a basis for numerous lessons, from those about loss and grief to visual literacy–what does the butterfly show in its demeanour?–and speculation about the outcome for the rock. I could even see science lessons about living and non-living things and their relationships, and creative writing about the future for the butterfly, and even the absentee rock. But, most of all, The Rock and the Butterfly reminds us that loss is not limited to humans and that dealing with loss is a natural process that requires self-care, time, and a support system. Fortunately for this butterfly, healing is realized.