Ride the Butterflies: Back to School with Donald Davis

Experience flashes of recognition in moments that transcend Donald Davis's childhood stories.




Maybe it's because his mother was a teacher. Or maybe it's because he has spent most of his life in classrooms - as a wide-eyed first grader, a naïve college student, a seminarian, and now as a visiting writer in residencies across the country. There's something about school that infuses the work of Donald Davis and he has collected his all-time favorite school stories in the book.

Whether we're traveling around the world with Miss Daisy, the fourth grade teacher who was integrating arithmetic, geography and English before the term “whole language” ever surfaced; or watching in awe as a classmate conjugates malaprops in Miss Vergilius Darwin's Latin class; or driving a school bus and learning about segregation - we experience flashes of recognition in moments that transcend Donald Davis's childhood stories. These coming of age tales will teach readers the importance of caring, citizenship and respect. 

Donald Davis Bio: 

Donald Davis was raised in the Great Smoky Mountains of North Carolina. He didn't realize it at the time, but he grew up in a family of gifted storytellers who passed their talent along to Donald. His legendary Uncle Frank was a front-porch storyteller of the first order and the source of many of Donald’s tales. Young Davis was a capable student. He went to college and then to divinity school. For twenty years he served the Western North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church. Then came a day when he found that he would rather tell Uncle Frank's tall tales than give another sermon. He would rather recall two old-maid sisters who abused the party line than marry one more couple. Fortunately, Davis had no trouble finding audiences: all of his former congregations lined up to book him to perform as a storyteller. He now tours the USA ten months a year, making about 300 storytelling presentations annually. He can be found in schools, at libraries, in front of conventions, and as a headliner at storytelling festivals. Davis has appeared on ABC News Nightline, and he has been a guest on National Public Radio and CNN. His books and spoken word recordings have received critical acclaim and won many awards. Davis has written ten books and recorded twenty audio recordings with August House. When Donald isn’t crisscrossing the country performing his stories, he comes home to Ocracoke Island, North Carolina where he lives with his wife, Merle.