Lili Macaroni

In this award-winning picture book, Lili discovers heartache when she starts school and is teased for the features she loves about herself. When she starts a conversation in class about difficult emotions, Lili is not the only one to find healing.

An award-winning picture book about resilience, self-esteem, and the power of talking about emotions

Lili Macaroni loves drawing butterflies, counting the stars, and being exactly who she is—Lili Macaroni. That is, until she starts kindergarten. There her classmates tell her that her hair is like a pumpkin, her eyes are squinty blueberries, and her laugh is like a parrot’s squawk. She has never felt such unhappiness before. It makes her want to erase herself and draw a brand-new Lili. Then she reconsiders. Does she really want to erase her hair that’s just like Mom’s? Her eyes just like Grandma’s? Her Grandpa’s infectious laugh?

With her parents’ help, she creates a polka-dotted butterfly to wear at her collar, publicly announcing her own resilience and symbolically letting her sorrows be flown away. And when she explains the butterfly to her classmates, Lili discovers she has begun a powerful conversation, and that everyone has some trouble to be carried away on butterfly wings.

In this accessible exploration of emotions and self-esteem, Nicole Testa and Annie Boulanger create a relatable heroine with inborn ingenuity and warm family support.