By Erin Wood
Ahead of the April 2, 2020 release of her children’s book Butterfly Dreams: Friendship Takes Flight and her original single “Butterflies and Honeybees,” Little Rock author, illustrator, and children’s music teacher Carol Dabney is helping kids enjoy time with music and puppets on her new YouTube channel (youtube.com/user/dabohana).
As we are all called upon to encourage each other through challenging times, Dabney’s book and accompanying song offer the story of a big dream nurtured by an unusual friendship.
After Lily-Jane helps her grandmother build a butterfly habitat, a close look at a caterpillar’s spots sends her stumbling in disbelief. “Me llamo Carlos,” says the charming little caterpillar, and an extraordinary friendship is born. But when Carlos becomes trapped in his chrysalis, his dream of wings seems more out of reach than ever before.
As readers discover the tremendous power of encouraging words to nurture a friend past paralyzing self-doubt even when it means letting them go to fulfill their destiny, Carlos learns whether friendship and faith are enough to help him soar on the wings of a dream that may be just the right size. Butterfly Dreams is perfect for Easter baskets or friends needing an extra nudge.
Raised on a forty-acre goat farm in the Ozarks, Dabney studied Italian opera, was “Miss Arkansas Teen,” and began her recording career at seventeen. She plays the ukulele and combines music, art, and puppetry to create a unique style of interactive storytelling.
Dabney shares, “Spring readings and programming for Butterfly Dreams have sadly been postponed. For now, stay inside your home cocoons, dream big, and stay connected to your friends and teachers through social media. We will emerge soon, spread our wings, and fly!”
This 8.5 x 11 premium color paperback has 32 pages and is available for order through local and national booksellers and with or without CD at www.etaliapress.com.
A Hot Springs native, Erin Wood is a writer, editor, and publisher in Little Rock. She owns and runs Et Alia Press (www.etaliapress.com). Wood is author of Women Make Arkansas: Conversations With 50 Creatives (April, 2019) and editor of and a contributor to Scars: An Anthology (2015).
