 | |
| Author | Cecilia Galante |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Young adult |
| Published | 2008 Bloomsbury |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover), (Paperback), (Audio CD), (Kindle) |
| Pages | 292 (Hardcover), 320 (Paperback) |
The Patron Saint of Butterflies is a young-adult novel by author Cecilia Galante. It was first published in 2008.
Honey and Agnes are best friends growing up in Mount Blessing, a religious commune in Fairfield, Connecticut. Honey and Agnes could not be any more different, and the older they get the more they are growing apart. Honey was abandoned by her mother as a newborn, but she lived in the nursery with Agnes until she turned 7 years old; Honey lives with Winky and Agnes lives with her parents and her brother, Benny. Ever since Agnes got The Saints' Way (The Saints' Way is a book that everyone in Mount Blessing gets when they turn twelve; it is given by the leader Emmanuel), she has changed. Agnes now abides by all the rules in Mount Blessing, and she goes by whatever Emmanuel says. Honey on the other hand, never listens to Emmanuel or Veronica, never follows the rules and hates living at Mount Blessing. Whenever they, or anyone, do something wrong they are sent to the "regulation room". There they get whipped by Emmanuel and Veronica. Everything stays this way until Nana Pete, Agnes' grandmother, shows up unexpectedly and finds out the truth behind Mount Blessing.
The Patron Saint of Butterflies received the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers (NAIBA) Best Book of the Year award for Children's Literature in 2008; it was also selected as one of Oprah’s Best Teen Selections in 2008. [1] The Patron Saint of Butterflies earned the award for the Young Adult Book of the Year by the Northeast Independent Booksellers Association and was a Top Ten Pick for 2008 by Amazon.com. [2] The novel was selected to be a Book Sense Pick and a Banks Children Book of the Year Selection. [3] It was also a Golden Sower Award Nominee and a Grand Canyon Reader Award Nominee. [3]
In 2011, The Patron Saint of Butterflies was banned from a school in Minnesota. [4] The effect of which was to increase the popularity and visibility of the novel. [5]
The story is a fictionalized account of the little-known religious commune run by Herbert Thomas Schwartz (1903-1980) at Mount Hope in New York in the mid-20th century. [6] Unlike the Mount Blessing community, the Mount Hope religious commune was quite mobile. Schwartz started the community by gathering laypeople around himself in Greenwich Village in the early sixties. [7] The community was housed first in Ramsey, New Jersey, then in Ridgewood, New Jersey, finally moving in 1965 to Mount Hope. [8] [9] After Schwartz died, the commune "headquarters" moved to Milford, Pennsylvania. [10] [11] ) One who was an adult at Mount Hope, Laura Mead Jones, describes the author, Cecilia Galante, as a woman who lived the life of the children described in The Patron Saint of Butterflies: "Cecilia Galante was born at Mt. Hope and her book is something of a parody of life as seen through the eyes of many of her generation." [12] In a 2007 post, Laura Jones also wrote that it appeared to her that author Cecilia Galante actually enjoyed Mount Hope, but only changed her views about the religious commune when convinced to do so as an adult by her mother, Terry Plummer. [13] Similarities between Mount Blessing commune and Mount Hope commune are only slightly veiled. The character "Emmanuel" stood for cult-leader Herbert T. Schwartz while the character "Veronica" represented his wife "Charleen". [14] The fictional book, The Saint's Way represents the autobiography of St. Therese of Lisieux which is called The Little Way. Schwartz considered himself to be the official and proper (though never pronounced by any ecclesial authority and thereby self-proclaimed) interpreter of St. Therese's description of her path to holiness.
Many adults who were children at the commune wrote blogs confirming abuse (physical and sexual) by Schwartz at Mount Hope. [15] [16] [17] A private Facebook page was created for survivors to contact one another. [18] Some remaining adults defend Herbert T. Schwartz as a great and holy leader while the grown children are confused and depraved. [19] [20] Then there are some who were there or who knew Schwartz who are non-committal about the whole event. [21] [22] The author of The Patron Saint of Butterflies, Cecilia Galante, reported that it was a place where she was always writing, including early stories "passed down from her father," Tom Plummer. [23]
A nine (9) hour audio version of Patron Saint of Butterflies was produced in 2011.
Agnes of Rome is a virgin martyr, venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church, Oriental Orthodox Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church, as well as the Anglican Communion and Lutheran Churches. St. Agnes is one of several virgin martyrs commemorated by name in the Canon of the Mass.
Saint Cecilia, also spelled Cecelia, was a Roman virgin martyr and is venerated in Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, and some Lutheran churches, such as the Church of Sweden. She became the patroness of music and musicians, it being written that, as the musicians played at her wedding, Cecilia "sang in her heart to the Lord". Musical compositions are dedicated to her, and her feast, on 22 November, is the occasion of concerts and musical festivals.
Marie-Galante is one of the islands that form Guadeloupe, an overseas department of France. Marie-Galante has a land area of 158.1 km2. It had 11,528 inhabitants at the start of 2013, but by the start of 2018 the total was officially estimated to be 10,655, with a population density of 62.5/km2 (162/sq mi).
Booklist is a publication of the American Library Association that provides critical reviews of books and audiovisual materials for all ages. Booklist's primary audience consists of libraries, educators, and booksellers. The magazine is available to subscribers in print and online. Booklist is published 22 times per year, and reviews over 7,500 titles annually. The Booklist brand also offers a blog, various newsletters, and monthly webinars. The Booklist offices are located in the American Library Association headquarters in Chicago’s Gold Coast neighborhood.
Jennifer Donnelly is an American writer of young adult fiction best known for the historical novel A Northern Light.
Annick Press is a Canadian book publishing company that was founded in Toronto, Ontario in 1975 by Anne Millyard and Rick Wilks. Rick Wilks became the sole owner in 2000. A second editorial office was opened in Vancouver by Colleen MacMillan in 1999. Annick Press publishes approximately thirty books of fiction and non-fiction for children and young adults per year.
Diana degli Andalò, OP, sometimes d'Andalo, was a Dominican nun who founded a convent for her order dedicated to Saint Agnes in Italy.
The St. Cecilia Altarpiece is an oil painting by the Italian High Renaissance master Raphael. Completed in his later years, in around 1516–17, the painting depicts Saint Cecilia, the patron saint of musicians and Church music, listening to a choir of angels in the company of St. Paul, St. John the Evangelist, St. Augustine and Mary Magdalene. Commissioned for a church in Bologna, the painting now hangs in that city's Pinacoteca Nazionale. According to Giorgio Vasari the musical instruments strewn about Cecilia's feet were not painted by Raphael but by his student, Giovanni da Udine.
Agnes of Jesus, OP was a French Catholic nun of the Dominican Order. She was prioress of her monastery at Langeac, and is today venerated in the Catholic Church, having been beatified by Pope John Paul II on November 20, 1994.
Jessica Day George is an American author who lives in Utah. She is a New York Times bestselling author of Young Adult fantasy novels, and she received the 2007 Whitney Award for Best Book by a New Author for Dragon Slippers. Having attended Brigham Young University (BYU), George is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Hannah Moskowitz is an American author of young adult and middle grade novels.
Cecilia (Plummer) Galante is a twenty-first century American author.
Laura Whitcomb is an American novelist and teacher. She is best known for her book A Certain Slant of Light, which has been optioned for a film by Summit Entertainment. Whitcomb has won three Kay Snow awards and was runner-up in the Bulwer-Lytton Writing Contest.
A Certain Slant of Light is a 2005 young adult horror novel by author Laura Whitcomb. The book was first published on September 21, 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt's Graphia imprint. Film rights for A Certain Slant of Light have been optioned by Summit Entertainment. The title is derived from the first line of "There's a certain Slant of light", a poem by Emily Dickinson.
Deborah Heiligman is an American author of books for children and teens. Her work ranges from picture books to young adult novels and includes both fiction and nonfiction.
The Knife and the Butterfly is a young adult novel by Ashley Hope Pérez, published in 2011 by Carolrhoda Books. The novel, which explores the lives of two teenage gang members in Houston, a Hispanic boy named Azael and a White girl named Lexi, is based on a 2006 gang-related death in that city.
What Can't Wait is a young adult novel by Ashley Hope Pérez, published by Carolrhoda Lab in 2011. The story portrays a Mexican American teenage girl living in Houston who is torn between the demands of her family and her ambitions for the future. Karen Coats of The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books wrote that this novel portrays how many immigrant families do not want their teenagers to absorb Americanized attitudes even though the immigrants came to the U.S. to get a better life. This is the author's first novel.
Out of Darkness is a historical young adult novel by Ashley Hope Pérez, published September 1, 2015 by Carolrhoda Lab. The novel chronicles a love affair between a teenage Mexican-American girl and a teenage African-American boy in 1930s New London, Texas, occurring right up to the 1937 New London School explosion.
Blessing of animals can be either of the animal or of the human-animal relationship, and can apply to pets and other companion animals, or to agricultural animals and working and other animals which humans depend on or interact with.
Laurie Ann Thompson is an American writer. She is known for her children's books and books for young adults. Thompson is a winner of one of the 2016 Schneider Family Book Awards for her book, Emmanuel's Dream: The True Story of Emmanuel Ofosu Yeboah, which was illustrated by Sean Qualls.
