The Butterfly Basket

by C.A. Waldman, Susan Hill (Illustrations)

It’s bad enough that Mama died and the bank man stole the family house in Chicago, but now eleven-year-old Sara Constance O’Day is being forced to live on her grandparents’ California ranch. Coyote Creek Ranch is as different from the big city as the moon is from the earth. Sara hates the brown emptiness, the heat, the prickles, and the coyotes’ howls. She’s terrified of the venomous snakes and hungry mountain lions. But mostly she’s afraid of facing Mama’s death and the feelings she has hidden deep inside.A Kawaiisu Indian girl named Lena, a beautiful butterfly basket, and the wild spirit of Coyote Canyon hold the answer to all of Sara’s problems, but only if she will listen to what they have to say. A novel for young people ages eight and up, as well as for their parents and teachers, THE BUTTERFLY BASKET is a story of the healing power of friendship, woven with strands of authentic Native American culture, and filled with the natural beauty of America's Southwest.

240 pages, Paperback

First published September 7, 2014

Reviews

[Claire · Rating 5 out of 5]

I purchased this book a while ago, and the beautiful cover kept calling to me. Finally, I had the chance to sit with this heart-tugging, insightful tale about Sara's Depression-era stay on her grandmother's ranch in Coyote Canyon. "You can find beauty anywhere," Abe tells a skeptical Sara as she gazes at the desert-dry countryside. It takes Sara many adventures, new discoveries, a special friendship with basket-weaver Lena, and encounters with a flash flood and the near loss of her little brother Joey, for Sara to understand the truth of Abe's simple pronouncement. This book is a captivating tale for young and old alike, an entertaining yet reverent rendering of the Navajo and the Kawaiisu language and efforts to preserve an important tribal culture. The writing is superb, the illustrations by Susan Hill awesome. Bravo.