Teaching climate-induced migration through Indian picturebooks: a multimodal study of a butterfly smile

Purpose This paper aims to explore how contemporary Indian picturebooks represent climate-induced migration and children’s experiences of belonging through multimodal storytelling. Focusing on A Butterfly Smile (2017) by Mathangi Subramanian and Lavanya Naidu, it explores how verbal and visual narratives construct meanings around displacement, ecological vulnerability and emotional adaptation in rural-urban migration contexts in India. Design/methodology/approach The study employs multimodal analysis, drawing on Kress and Leeuwen’s visual grammar, to examine narrative voice, color, spatial composition and word-image interaction in the picturebook. The study is situated within Critical literacy scholarship relevant to English language education and children’s literature in India. Findings Three interrelated themes emerge: affective displacement, ecological precarity and emerging agency. The picturebook frames migration not only as an economic necessity but as an emotional and ecological condition shaped by drought, environmental change and linguistic marginalization. Visual and Verbal elements depict silence, vulnerability, adaptation, and belonging, creating entry points for classroom discussions on climate change, forced migration and social inclusion. These multimodal representations support literacy practices by making complex social and environmental realities accessible to young learners. Originality/value By foregrounding climate-induced internal migration in an Indian picturebook, this study extends children’s literature research beyond dominant Global North contexts and establishes local picturebooks from the Global South as significant pedagogical and cultural texts within English education scholarship.