If you were a kid who came home and watched TV after school anytime between 1983 and 2006, it was very likely you watched at least a few episodes of the revolutionary children’s show Reading Rainbow. The long-running PBS series, hosted by LeVar Burton, was the first of its kind and focused on addressing summer reading loss and instilling a love of reading in its viewers. The 2022 Netflix documentary Butterfly in the Sky not only tells the story of what made the show special but also highlights the cyclical nature of the fight for representation.
One standout quality of the show is the immersive experiences it provides viewers – each episode, Reading Rainbow takes us to a unique filming location that illustrates one of its themes or replicates the setting of a featured book. Filmed documentary style, the show provided fascinating footage of places such as Bracken Cave in San Antonio, Texas, home to millions of bats and even captured Kilaulea, the most active volcano in Hawaii, as it was erupting.
In addition to exposing viewers to new locations, Reading Rainbow is also purposeful about showcasing people with different cultural backgrounds and experiences. Many episodes featured stories centered on serious topics such as processing the death of a loved one, homelessness, slavery, having incarcerated parents, and many others that how LeVar Burton described as having, “an awful lot of emotion, an awful lot of information about what it means to be a good person, what it means to be a human being in this modern world.”
Like all public media, Reading Rainbow was kept afloat with government funds. But in a clip from a 1995 congressional hearing, one member of Congress refers to PBS content (which includes Reading Rainbow) as “biased one-sided propagandistic programming.”
Not too different from today, huh? I don’t think it’s coincidental that Butterfly in the Sky came out when book bans are reaching the highest levels in more than 20 years and government entities are doing away with DEI initiatives. The documentary stirs up feelings of nostalgia for those of us who hold a special place in our hearts for the show and all that it meant. But it does more than that.
Butterfly in the Sky is a reminder that the fight for representation is an ongoing battle that we all must be a part of. We are allowed to take up space and be proud of who we are. As Jason Reynolds, a NYT best-selling author, stated in Butterfly in the Sky, “For all of us watching, [Reading Rainbow] was saying, ‘You matter. Your stories matter. Your voice matters. Your opinion matters.’ Which means that I get to watch the show and say, ‘Maybe I have a voice. Maybe I have an opinion. Maybe I have a story.’”
Though the show ended 18 years ago, its legacy still stands true today. Books are special, and seeing ourselves in their pages can make us feel valued and less alone. Books open up our world, helping us learn about life beyond our own daily experiences. Books offer opportunities for growth, help us become more informed, and can teach us to be more empathetic.
Our stories deserve to be protected and deserve to be told. Reading Rainbow spread that message twenty years ago and now it’s our turn.
Butterfly in the Sky is streaming on Netflix. For more resources on fighting back against censorship and book bans, check out the American Library Association’s resources.
