Papilio by Ben Clanton, Corey R. Tabor, and Andy Chou Musser

Hello, Picture Book Builders people! Today’s post is brought to you by my friend Janee Trasler. 🙂

I’ve always wondered what it would be like to collaborate with another author on a book. How would that work? Who would do what? How would you divide the work?

Ben Clanton, Corey R. Tabor, and Andy Chou Musser handle it beautifully in Papilio (Viking 2025). They each narrate and illustrate one phase of a butterfly’s life cycle. How smart was that to choose a topic that was already divided up for them?

Ben took the caterpillar phase, Corey chose the chrysalis stage, and Andy ends with the butterfly.Each author/illustrator has his own storytelling style, but they manage to make the three stories flow into one cohesive arc.

The illustrations have a similar palette, and while each artist’s individual style shows through, each section looks as if it is definitely set in the same world. To help with this, a few items appear in all three stories (identifiable flowers, a secondary mouse character, movement lines, etc.).

Highlights for me in each section:

Caterpillar stage: I love how happy and cute caterpillar Papilio looks with the cartoon outline and features. Ben’s use of onomatopoeia is fantastic too.

Chrysalis stage:There is such an “aw” moment here when the mouse character returns Papilio’s chrysalis to the exact same spot it was in before a near catastrophe. An author note at the end tells us that Corey came up with this secondary character first; then Ben and Andy incorporated the mouse into their parts of the book.

Butterfly stage: Andy’s illustrations had the most movement and a wildness to them that seemed so appropriate to the moment Papilio got her wings and the freedom that came with them.

The last illustration is a true collaboration. The three artists passed this illustration back and forth and each one had a hand in it.

Back matter: The author notes were great. As I mentioned, I’ve always wondered about collaboration. This section answered so many questions about how the book came about and the process.

I love that Ben, Corey, and Andy are friends and the friendship theme shone through in this book.

Many thanks to Janee for this post!

Psst! Janee has a new book heading into the world this October. Check it out!

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