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The Butterfly Lampshade posted by Robyn

The Butterfly Lampshade by Aimee Bender is a quiet yet sad mother-daughter story about mental illness.  Francie is 8 years old when her single mom has a nervous breakdown and is institutionalized.  After spending the night with a babysitter, Francie leaves her Washington home and takes a train to California to stay with her mother’s very pregnant sister and family.  Francie becomes part of this family – she is raised by her aunt and uncle, and becomes an older sister figure to newborn cousin Vicky. Francie is haunted by the memory of a butterfly she remembers swallowing on the evening her mom went away.  While Francie was under the babysitter’s care, she was enchanted by a beautiful lampshade covered with colorful butterflies.  She found one of the butterflies floating in the nearby water glass the next morning, and drank it.  This was followed by two other similar incidents, involving a beetle and a rose bouquet.  Twenty years later, Francie continues to wonder if she has inherited her mom’s mental instability.   

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