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THE STORY OF A BUTTERFLY

LEARN ABOUT THE LIFE CYCLE AND HABITAT OF THE PAINTED LADY

An oddly rare introduction to a widely distributed butterfly.

Monarchs get most of the attention—but here the spotlight shifts to the equally wonderful and even more common painted lady.

Aside from a mention that caterpillars transform themselves into “goo” in a chrysalis before emerging as adults, the tone of this portrait of Vanessa cardui stands in stark contrast to that of Rosemary Mosco’s Butterflies Are Pretty…Gross! (2021)—focusing instead on the “magic” of metamorphosis and the insect’s life cycle while following two young visitors through a tour of a butterfly house and then on to the creation of a butterfly garden based, as is proper, on locally native plants. Though Reed doesn’t explain how the species’ populations on both sides of the Atlantic can go through long migratory cycles that take several generations to complete (backmatter merely states that migration is “another wonder of nature”), she adds further facts about them, as well as moths and butterflies in general, at the end. Montoya enhances a pair of appended photos with paintings that highlight his fluttery subject’s lovely wing patterns and feature a mix of children and adult helpers in school and garden. Characters are diverse in skin tone and include a hijab wearer and one young student in a wheelchair. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

An oddly rare introduction to a widely distributed butterfly. (Informational picture book. 6-8)

Pub Date: Sept. 6, 2022

ISBN: 978-1-72826-144-7

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Sourcebooks eXplore

Review Posted Online: May 24, 2022

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2022

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BUTT OR FACE?

A gleeful game for budding naturalists.

Artfully cropped animal portraits challenge viewers to guess which end they’re seeing.

In what will be a crowd-pleasing and inevitably raucous guessing game, a series of close-up stock photos invite children to call out one of the titular alternatives. A page turn reveals answers and basic facts about each creature backed up by more of the latter in a closing map and table. Some of the posers, like the tail of an okapi or the nose on a proboscis monkey, are easy enough to guess—but the moist nose on a star-nosed mole really does look like an anus, and the false “eyes” on the hind ends of a Cuyaba dwarf frog and a Promethea moth caterpillar will fool many. Better yet, Lavelle saves a kicker for the finale with a glimpse of a small parasitical pearlfish peeking out of a sea cucumber’s rear so that the answer is actually face and butt. “Animal identification can be tricky!” she concludes, noting that many of the features here function as defenses against attack: “In the animal world, sometimes your butt will save your face and your face just might save your butt!” (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A gleeful game for budding naturalists. (author’s note) (Informational picture book. 6-8)

Pub Date: July 11, 2023

ISBN: 9781728271170

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Sourcebooks eXplore

Review Posted Online: May 9, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2023

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WHAT IF YOU HAD AN ANIMAL HOME!?

From the What if You Had . . .? series

Another playful imagination-stretcher.

Markle invites children to picture themselves living in the homes of 11 wild animals.

As in previous entries in the series, McWilliam’s illustrations of a diverse cast of young people fancifully imitating wild creatures are paired with close-up photos of each animal in a like natural setting. The left side of one spread includes a photo of a black bear nestling in a cozy winter den, while the right side features an image of a human one cuddled up with a bear. On another spread, opposite a photo of honeybees tending to newly hatched offspring, a human “larva” lounges at ease in a honeycomb cell, game controller in hand, as insect attendants dish up goodies. A child with an eye patch reclines on an orb weaver spider’s web, while another wearing a head scarf constructs a castle in a subterranean chamber with help from mound-building termites. Markle adds simple remarks about each type of den, nest, or burrow and basic facts about its typical residents, then closes with a reassuring reminder to readers that they don’t have to live as animals do, because they will “always live where people live.” A select gallery of traditional homes, from igloo and yurt to mudhif, follows a final view of the young cast waving from a variety of differently styled windows.

Another playful imagination-stretcher. (Informational picture book. 6-8)

Pub Date: May 7, 2024

ISBN: 9781339049052

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Scholastic

Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2024

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2024

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