Review by Booklist Review
This colorful book takes readers to a butterfly pupa farm in Costa Rica. Captured and taken to greenhouses, varieties of caterpillars eat, grow, and molt. When they grow larger, the caterpillars are transferred to screened cabinets and supplied with fresh leaves until they become pupae. Some are kept to develop into butterflies and later released into the nearby forest. Other pupae are sorted, wrapped, packed into special boxes, and sent to places such as Boston's Museum of Science. Appended pages discuss the life cycles of insects and the varied names for the stages of insect development. Using proper terminology, Burns writes clearly about the butterfly's life cycle. For libraries overstocked with books on monarch butterflies, the blue morpho butterfly is often used as an example here. Throughout the book, crisp, nicely composed photos offer excellent views of the butterflies, people, and places mentioned. This will particularly interest children who have visited exhibits of live, tropical butterflies in conservatories and museums.--Phelan, Carolyn Copyright 2014 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 1-4-Burns focuses first on the life of the life of the blue morpho butterfly at the El Bosque Nuevo butterfly farm in Costa Rica and concludes with its a final destination, the Museum of Science in Boston. Bold statements emphasize the details of the expedition through punchy phrases. "Sturdy and tightly sealed, these ingenious packages are ready to travel." Factual back matter further supports the story. Additional information appears in the section "Insects and Their Life Cycles," which discusses the process of metamorphosis. Crisp, full-page photographs capture each impressive stage of the butterfly's journey. Vocabulary is clearly defined within the text, and the glossary explains scientific terms used within the narrative. At the end, the author notes that she and the photographer visited the Costa Rican greenhouse to capture this amazing process. This fascinating topic, rarely featured for a young audience, offers an accessible, visual delight.-Meg Smith, Cumberland County Public Library, Fayetteville, NC (c) Copyright 2014. 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
An explanation of the life cycle of butterflies gets an intriguing twist in this account of the work of a Costa Rican butterfly farm, where blue morpho butterflies are raised and the pupae eventually shipped to museums for display and observation. Detailed discussion of each stage in the butterfly life cycle -- egg, larva, pupa, and adult -- is accompanied by wonderfully sharp, close-up photographs that show intricate structural details, including a three-image sequence that illustrates the emergence of an adult blue morpho from its brilliant emerald-green pupa. It's a bit disconcerting, but also fascinating, to see the industrial overlay on a natural process: eggs are laid on cultivated plants within netted greenhouses, caterpillars at the right age are transferred to an isolated section called the puparium when they're ready to transform, and piles of plucked pupae are sorted and laid out for packaging and shipment. Additional information about metamorphosis, a glossary, and further reading are appended. danielle j. ford (c) Copyright 2014. 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
Beautiful butterflies on view in museums and gardens across North America begin life on farms in Costa Rica. In words and pictures, an experienced author-illustrator team explains the stages of butterfly metamorphosis that allow these popular insects to be raised at El Bosque Nuevo in the Costa Rican forest for the butterfly garden in the Museum of Science in Boston. This large, square album perfectly complements primary-grade butterfly studies. Crisply reproduced photographs show butterflies in all their stages, the greenhouse and other farm buildings where they are bred and grown, farm workers tending the caterpillars and collecting and packing the pupae, and finally, a child in Boston watching an adult butterfly emerge. A relatively simple text explains the insect's life cycle and the production process. Some science vocabularyexoskeleton, pupa, moltis defined in context. Only in the two-page backmatter (still aimed at the child reader) does the author use the word metamorphosis. There, she also connects the changes in butterflies to the stages of other insects. There's a map early in the narrative as well as a concluding glossary and appropriate suggestions for further reading and research. Sadly, the intriguing photographs of pupae on the front endpapers and adults on the back aren't labeled. Despite this miscalculation, an otherwise valuable addition to any classroom library. (bibliography, index) (Informational picture book. 6-10)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
