The Patron Saint of Butterflies [Hardcover]

Cecilia Galante (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2008

Agnes and Honey have always been best friends, but they haven’t always been so different. Agnes loves being a Believer.  She knows the rules at the Mount Blessing religious commune are there to make her a better person. Honey hates Mount Blessing and the control Emmanuel, their leader, has over her life.  The only bright spot is the butterfly garden she’s helping to build, and the journal of butterflies that she keeps.  When Agnes’s grandmother makes an unexpected visit to the commune, she discovers a violent secret that the Believers are desperate to keep quiet.  And when Agnes’s little brother is seriously injured and Emmanuel refuses to send him to a hospital, Nana Pete takes the three children and escapes the commune.  Their journey begins an exploration of faith, friendship, religion and family for the two girls, as Agnes clings to her familiar faith while Honey desperately wants a new future. 

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 6–9—Honey and Agnes are 14-year-old best friends growing up in the Mount Blessing religious commune near Fairfield, CT, but are polar opposites in their adherence to the "Four Big Rules" that govern daily life. Honey, abandoned at the commune as a newborn, is a perpetual rebel, having most recently been sent to the Regulation Room for kissing a boy. There, the group's founder/leader, the charismatic Emmanuel, metes out punishments. Agnes is a self-described "saint wannabe." She starves herself, sleeps on stones, and wears a cord tightly belted under her robe as reminders of the suffering endured by the saints. The girls share a love for Nana Pete, Agnes's father's mother, and live for her annual summer visits. When Nana discovers the physical and emotional abuse imposed on the children, she resolves to spirit them away. Honey is a willing runaway, but Agnes is reluctant. The kids' new reality includes "firsts" such as visits to McDonald's and Wal-Mart. Their route ends in Georgia, at the home of Agnes's estranged aunt. In the realistic and emotionally charged climax, family ties are revealed and, thanks to Honey's forethought and Agnes's new understanding that the truth can set you free, the cult is soon busted, police lights flashing. If both girls occasionally seem wise beyond their years, readers will nevertheless cheer them on as they ponder the limits of faith and duty.—Joel Shoemaker, Southeast Junior High School, Iowa City, IA
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From Booklist

Agnes and Honey have grown up together in the Mount Blessing religious community led by charismatic Emmanuel. But where Agnes is devoted, even emulating those she reads about in The Way of the Saints by mortifying her body, Honey is desperate for a way out. That comes in the form of Agnes’ Nana Pete, who learns about the physical discipline that goes on in the Regulation Room. When Agnes’ little brother, Benny, has a serious accident, which Emmanuel tries to heal with a miracle, Nana Pete whisks the three children away. The story, both past and present, unfolds in alternating chapters told by Agnes and Honey. Galante, who grew up in a religious commune, captures Agnes’ loyalty and unease, and Honey’s ability to see beyond her surroundings is adequately explained (she’s living with someone who has snuck a tiny TV into the compound), though the question of  her origins seems contrived. Still, readers will be fascinated by a glimpse into a lifestyle not often seen. Grades 6-10. --Ilene Cooper

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 12 and up
  
• Hardcover: 292 pages
• Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Childrens; 1st edition (April 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1599902494
• ISBN-13: 978-1599902494
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,307,947 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A touching, beautiful first novel, July 25, 2008

By 

Teenreads.com (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Patron Saint of Butterflies (Hardcover)

Mount Blessing is a secluded commune near Fairfield, Connecticut, and home to about 260 people. Emmanuel, the founder of the commune, leads them in all areas of life. Most of the inhabitants hold him in the highest regard, only one tiny step below Jesus. They trust him to lead them in spiritual lives, and he does so in a strict, perfectionist way --- no television or radios, chanting prayers many hours a day, and restriction to the Mount Blessing grounds, except for the ones who have jobs to earn money for the commune. Emmanuel also handles the discipline.

Fourteen-year-olds Honey and Agnes have lived their entire lives at Mount Blessing. Every child there leaves his or her parents at six months of age and moves to the nursery until the age of seven or so. Then he or she returns to live with mom and dad. Except for Honey. Her father is a complete question mark, and her mother left the commune when Honey was just three weeks old. The only item her mom left behind was a tiny ceramic cat, which Honey carries with her all the time.

Honey and Agnes have been best friends since the cradle. At least up until recently. When Agnes turns 12, Emmanuel presents her with a special book, THE SAINTS' WAY. After that, Agnes strives desperately for perfection and sainthood. She even performs self-mutilation in penance for her mistakes, like starvation (she calls fasting), sleeping on rocks, and tying a string around her waist to cut into her skin. Agnes feels that Mount Blessing is a sacred place and a special home.

Honey, on the other hand, desperately dreams of freedom from Mount Blessing's rigid rules. She sneaks glimpses of the outside world from the tiny black and white TV that her housemate, Winky, a physically and mentally challenged gardener, hides under his bed to secretly watch baseball games. The only happiness Honey finds is helping Winky in the butterfly gardens, her friendship with Agnes before she began straining for sainthood, and the yearly visit of Nana Pete.

Nana Pete is grandmother to Agnes and her little brother Benny, but has always included Honey in everything. She comes for yearly visits, and the three kids enjoy their time with her. However, this year Nana Pete finally learns about Emmanuel's harsh discipline, and she refuses to allow the child abuse to continue. A life-threatening accident offers the opportunity to yank Agnes, Benny and Honey away from the commune. While Honey loves exploring the outside world's freedom, Agnes pleads to return to Mount Blessing. In the frantic chaos that follows their escape, the group of scarred and hurting spirits discovers a few deeply buried secrets.

THE PATRON SAINT OF BUTTERFLIES is Cecilia Galante's debut novel --- and what a truly special, amazing, heart-touching work of art it is! Galante offers a glimpse into one commune's routines, a commune housing people who are so desperate to believe in something, anything, that their clouded judgment refuses to see the truth hiding beneath the fancy words. The story pulls readers through the pages with a persistent urgency to discover what happens to the two main characters. Told in alternating points of view, switching chapters for Agnes and Honey, readers get to see the different effects of this particular commune up close and personal. Galante is a very talented writer, and fans will eagerly look forward to her next book.

--- Reviewed by Chris Shanley-Dillman, author of FINDING MY LIGHT and THE BLACK POND

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a great and timely read!, April 23, 2008

By 

Tamora Pierce (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Patron Saint of Butterflies (Hardcover)

This is a very timely book, coming out just as 437 children have been taken from a religious commune in Texas, their parents and leaders suspected of abuse. Agnes and Honey, two very different girls who are best friends, live on a very strict commune. Agnes is trying to become a saint, while Honey is trying to escape. Agnes has a family high in the commune's power structure, while Honey, an orphan, lives in a shack with the commune's handyman. Then Agnes's grandmother, while visiting, finds out what happens to the commune's kids when they are disciplined, and Agnes's little brother is badly hurt. The grandmother kidnaps both girls and the boy. It is then that all three kids get a chance to look at their commune and its adults from a distance. The characters are believably real: Agnes is annoying when she tries to be perfect, but she loves her brother and her friend. Honey is a pain because she is always contrary, but she wants to help her friend and the boy. And the book gives a great view of adults as human beings, with both good and bad sides. Seeing the kids react to things like fast food and shopping is fun, and the end kept me on the edge of my seat!

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Compelling, thoughtful debut, April 8, 2008

By 

Sarah Miller (Michigan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Patron Saint of Butterflies (Hardcover)

Let me say right from the top that this is a book that MAKES you finish once you open it.

I'm probably most impressed with the way the author handles the dual-voice narrative. The highest compliment I can pay Cecilia Galante in this regard is that I didn't even notice Honey and Agnes's chapters are set in different typefaces until I was probably 200 pages into the story. What I'm saying is, the voices are naturally distinctive enough that I didn't need to use font-switches as a crutch to help me figure out who was doing the talking.

Matter of fact, the girls were so different that I occasionally wondered if the characterizations could have been more subtle. I'm honestly not sure if that's a fair criticism, though. People brought up in such an extreme environment are likely to have extreme views and reactions. And let's not forget that the author herself lived in a religious commune until she was 15. She probably knows a thing or two about how people think and behave in this situation. Agnes in particular makes for an impressive character. Despite the fact that her thinking is...well...warped, she's both believable and likable. That's no small feat for an author to pull off.

This may be a book with something to say something about religion, but Cecilia Galante is smart enough not to turn her story into a pulpit. The plot is quick and intense, and the writing vivid enough that after Honey tasted her fist Big Mac, I just had to do the same. The Big Mac may be tasty, but given the choice, I'd rather devour a book as good as The Patron Saint of Butterflies any day.