The Butterfly Boy (Illustrated short stories)

✍ Scribed by Laurence Yep

• Tongue: English
• Series: Illustrated short stories 4
• Category: Fiction

✦ Synopsis

Drawn from the writings of Chuang Tzu, the fourth-century B.C. thinker sometimes called the Butterfly Philosopher, this delicate prose poem tells of "a boy who dreamed he was a butterfly and, as a butterfly, he always dreamed he was a boy."
Though the boy endures the laughter of others as he tries to suck nectar from flowers and finds beauty in stagnant water, he is heaped with praise after he fails to bow before a marauding warlord. Yet the dreamy boy cares little for the world's opinion, for he is happy as he is.
One of the interesting themes of this story is the reverence for nature and joy in its cycles.
Laurence Yep's simple language is exquisite in its clarity and, like a pebble thrown into water, creates ripples of meaning. A similar ethereal sensibility graces Jeanne M. Lee's paintings.