2023 IBPA Benjamin Franklin Awards Gold Medal, Fiction: Historical “The book reads as if it really is Davies’ autobiography . . . . a timely reminder of what women would have been up against in Hollywood.” —Historical Novel Society “The Blue Butterfly is a vibrant period novel that reimagines the controversial love story of a classic film star.” —Foreword Reviews New York 1915, Marion Davies is a shy eighteen-year-old beauty dancing on the Broadway stage when she meets William Randolph Hearst and finds herself captivated by his riches, passion and desire to make her a movie star. Following a whirlwind courtship, she learns through trial and error to live as Hearst’s mistress when a divorce from his wife proves impossible. A baby girl is born in secret in 1919 and they agree to never acknowledge her publicly as their own. In a burgeoning Hollywood scene, she works hard making movies while living a lavish partying life that includes a secret love affair with Charlie Chaplin. In late 1937, at the height of the depression, Hearst wrestles with his debtors and failing health, when Marion loans him $1M when nobody else will. Together, they must confront the movie that threatens to invalidate all of Marion’s successes in the movie industry: Citizen Kane.

In a garden of spectacular beauty in Giverny, France, Claude Monet painted flowers. Dazzled by the light, he painted with rich colors of vermilion, emerald, and violet. His poppies, tulips, irises, and waterlilies have awed the world. In her radiant watercolors, Bijou Le Tord uses Monet's own palette of only eight colors. Her magnificent paintings and poetic words celebrate the extraordinary vision of the beloved impressionist painter, Claude Monet.

"The only thing that remains constant is the blue butterfly. Every time the current reality goes swirling out of sync and I am transported to another time and place, the butterfly is there. It flutters into my circumstances, a warning that everything is about to change again, a reminder that time never stands still..."When their parents, a historian and a physicist experimenting with time travel, vanish, fourteen year old Mollie Donovan and her older brother Jack must accept that their parents are gone or try to find them. Using their parents' research and the one object that seems to be the key- a blue morpho butterfly-they set off on a journey traveling through decades, sometimes alone, sometimes together to try and find them. If they can change some lives and a little bit of history along the way, so much the better...

A psychotherapist who treats emotionally troubled young children invites us to join her in trying to understand the disturbing, sometimes terrifying relational narratives her clients persuade her to reenact with them.

A story about friendship and dreams that resonates well with children and adults.

When seventeen-year-old John Rodgers discovers a new sub-species of butterfly which may necessitate closing the mill where his dying father works, they find themselves on opposite sides of the environmental conflict.