Review by Booklist Review
Gr. 3^-6. A map of a monarch butterfly's migratory route from Massachusetts to Mexico sets the stage for this exceptional book. Rather than giving the usual survey of the habits, habitat, life cycle, and predators of butterflies, Pringle brings immediacy to his subject by focusing sharply on one monarch, whom he names Danaus. Beginning as an egg on the leaf of a milkweed plant, Danaus goes from caterpillar to chrysalis to butterfly and makes the long flight to Mexico. There she survives the winter, mates, and flies north to Texas, where she lays her own eggs in a milkweed field. The surprisingly absorbing story of Danaus' life is followed by a discussion of the monarchs' endangered winter refuges in Mexico and an explanation of how to raise monarch butterflies from the caterpillar stage. Throughout the book, Marstall's colorful paintings offer clear, brilliantly colored illustrations of the caterpillars growing, eating, resting, mating, avoiding predators, and flying, flying, flying. An excellent book on a popular species. --Carolyn Phelan
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 4-8Even libraries that already own Ethan Herberman's The Great Butterfly Hunt (S & S, 1990; o.p.), Kathryn Lasky's Monarchs (Harcourt, 1993), and Bianca Lavies's Monarch Butterflies (Dutton, 1993) need this book. It is written as a story, following the life cycle of a female caterpillarDanausfrom an egg laid in a Massachusetts hayfield to her death in an Arkansas pasture many months and a fantastic migration later. The narrative is scientifically sound and includes information from the most recent research on these familiar aerial flitterers. The attractive, oversized book is lavished with realistic, full-color paintings of Monarchs in all stages of their development and their habitats. Colorful sidebars and a variety of maps are accompanied by informative captions, and the whole is arranged into a particularly appealing, readable, and accurate package. A modicum of anthropomorphism does occur, but it is infrequent and low-key. An effort to avoid an onrushing car or the state of a heavily gravid female Monarch with no milkweed in sight may well be "frantic," and these slight slippages are unobtrusive. Following the body of the work are chapters on protecting the remaining winter refuges of these feather-light migrants and on raising Monarchs at home or in the classroom. A list of further readingsmany of them juvenile titlesand an index complete the harmonious whole.Patricia Manning, formerly at Eastchester Public Library, NY (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
I1="BLANK" I2="BLANKFleischman's innovative short novel is the story of an urban garden started by a child and nurtured by people of all ages and ethnic backgrounds. Each of the thirteen chapters is narrated by a different character, allowing the reader to watch as a community develops out of disconnected lives and previous suspicions. Although the total effect of the brief chapters is slightly superficial, some of the individual narratives are moving. The opening chapter about nine-year-old Kim, a Vietnamese immigrant, is a vivid portrait of a child who longs for the approval of her deceased father. The novel is didactic in purpose-folks of all ages, economic backgrounds, and ethnicities put aside their differences to create a beautiful, rich harvest-but effective in execution. From HORN BOOK, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A migration flight from New England to Mexico and back again would be impressive for a large goose; for a monarch butterfly, it's nothing short of miraculous. Pringle (Smoking, 1996, etc.) and Marstall capture that miracle in this chronicle of the lifetime of a monarch called Danaus (after its Latin name). Readers follow Danaus on her perilous journey from Massachusetts, slipping through cat paws and struggling with bad weather until she and thousands of other monarchs find their winter homes in Mexico and California. Even there, life is dangerous: Cold weather and predators kill off many monarchs before spring arrives, when they mate, fly north, lay their eggs, and die. Pringle writes simply of all the small, fascinating details that make up the monarch's life cycle, while illustrations and captions help readers visualize the information, e.g., that delicate gold dots on a monarch's chrysalis may help disguise the chrysalis from predators by reflecting sunlight like drops of dew, and the caterpillar's markings warn predators that it eats milkweed, making it poisonous to some. Marstall provides nearly photorealistic views of biological processes, but never neglects the poetic aspect of the information. A superb, well-researched book that finds extraordinary science in the everyday life of a butterfly. (maps, diagrams, further reading, index) (Nonfiction. 8-12)
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
