THE BLUE BUTTERFLY OF COCHIN, sweet story with gorgeous Siona Benjamin artwork

THE BLUE BUTTERFLY OF COCHIN
ARIANA MIZRAHI (illus. Siona Benjamin)
Kalaniot Books
$19.99 hardcover, available tomorrow

Rating: 5* of five

The Publisher Says: The Blue Butterfly of Cochin is the story of the ancient Jewish Indian community’s mass immigration to Israel in the 1950s. We follow Leah as she struggles to come to terms with leaving her beloved India and moving to the newly-formed country of Israel. Accompanied by a magical butterfly and through dream-like illustrations, both Leah and the reader, are transported from the lush Indian coastline to the awesome beauty of the Israeli desert.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: Decades ago, I saw a documentary at the American Museum of Natural History about the Cochin Jewish community, of whose existence I had been utterly unaware until then. It was a typical documentary of its era, the 1990s, with the expected non-commercial production values; what came bursting through the auditorium screen was the gorgeous, lush architecture, evocative of great wealth; now, however, empty and becoming shabby with neglect. The community that had been so rooted in the tropical coastal state of Cochin for over a millennium and a half had just...vanished.

The beauty they left behind was haunting. The documentary set out to make a visual record of it before entropy carted its magnificence away entirely. This made a deep and lasting impression on me. (Clearly.) I saw this book on Edelweiss+, and of course had to have it for that reason first. Then I noticed the illustrator’s name: Siona Benjamin!

I had discovered how much I loved her Indian-miniature style images in the early Aughties, when I ran across her New York gallery’s website. Although these illustrations are not in that same style, they are just as beautiful, just as intricate, just as emotionally impactful.

These images all evoke in me the same energy that Marc Chagall’s 1960s paintings evoke:

The Circus Horse, 1969; via Wikimedia Commons
I don’t know about you, but I feel there is a creative DNA connection between these artists’ œuvres. Much joy, then, for me on the visual level; the story, with which I was familiar from that long-ago introduction, was here made personal through telling it from a displaced child’s viewpoint. That worked as a means to particularize the community’s collective decision’s personal cost.

The global rise in antisemitism is something I deplore. I think, quite apart from the State of Israel’s appalling actions in Gaza in 2023-2024, the threat of antisemitism is in its turn appalling; we have, in the last century, seen where that has led. Better by far in my view to oppose ethnic hatred wherever we find it. How better to start than with teaching children that Humanity is one race, made up of all kinds of people, and they all have very interesting stories to read, tell, and learn about.

Starting here, with this beautiful book, would be a great introduction.