Review by Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Take one small act of nature, transform it into a story in rhyme, imbue it with a curious, likable character, apply child-appealing drawings, and voilà: an engaging, exceptional picture book. Little Arabella finds a tiny striped caterpillar, carries it home, and stuffs a shoebox with leaves and grass for its home. She gathers food, which the caterpillar chomps and chews and slurps until its skin splits. Weeks go by and Arabella watches it change every day until caterpillar becomes a butterfly. Based on the verse about Little Arabella Miller, the story arc is simple but the charm lies in the sketchy, pencil-and-paper collage illustrations, which at first glance look spontaneously slapdash but are skillfully executed to capture the fascination of the girl's discovery. Crayon lines drawn over the paper shapes suggest rather than define the details, lending a breezy feeling, and the book is perfectly designed, from the large format to the up-close perspective to the two end pages describing the four stages of the life cycle of a butterfly. Just as Arabella's caterpillar metamorphoses into a butterfly, so has Jarrett transformed a straightforward fact of nature into an entertaining story with with enormous child appeal.--Cummins, Julie Copyright 2008 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Jarrett (The Best Picnic Ever) adapts a finger rhyme (albeit one better known in her native Britain) and pairs it with floating illustrations to explore a caterpillar's transformation into a butterfly. Her heroine, Arabella Miller, brings home a small caterpillar, feeds it and builds it a home, and watches it change. The author/artist's lighthearted treatment involves bouncy, well-constructed verse that imparts plenty of information: "CRACK!/ His skin split all along his back./ And underneath it, big and baggy,/ was a new one, soft and saggy." Jarrett's full, round shapes and curved lines loosely recall Matisse; tissue paper cutouts and a bold springtime palette cinch the artistic reference. Unmentioned in the text, a pet dog helps Arabella gather leaves and waits by her side as she tends to her caterpillar. A final spread examines the life cycle of a butterfly; clear prose accompanies playful illustrations based on an insect in the swallowtail family and the Queen Anne's lace plant it prefers. Striking a balance between artistic feeling and scientific information, this handsome, oversize volume is particularly well suited for the preschool set. Ages 3-7. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 2-This colorful picture book introduces the life cycle of a butterfly through text based on a traditional children's song. Arabella Miller discovers the transformation of her caterpillar as page by page, munch by munch, "He ate and ate and grew and grew,/for that's what caterpillars do." An entrancing blend of brightly hued paper collage and casual pencil swirls illustrates the child with her tiny houseguest as she redoubles her efforts to persuade Caterpillar to stay. Variations of verse with the rhyming sounds "Miller" and "-pillar" create a familiar refrain. Arabella Miller follows her caterpillar with wonder through each stage, until the butterfly flits away across a full spread. Two pages of back matter retell the four-stage cycle, introducing scientific terms (chrysalis, metamorphosis). This lilting, rhythmic, patterned story has personal poetic expression and information. A first choice.-Mary Elam, Forman Elementary School, Plano, TX (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
Jarrett's text expands a children's song about a girl and her caterpillar. In this successful treatment, Arabella nurtures and observes her pet ("He chomped and chewed and slurped, then CRACK! / His skin split all along his back") until it becomes a butterfly. The illustrations--meandering black pencil lines outlining paper collages on clean white pages--capture the natural world in close-up. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
