A Butterfly Is Patient

by Dianna Hutts Aston, Sylvia Long (Illustrator)

Overview

The creators of the award-winning An Egg Is Quiet and A Seed Is Sleepy have teamed up again to create this gorgeous and informative introduction to the world of butterflies. From iridescent blue swallowtails and brilliant orange monarchs to the worlds tiniest butterfly (Western Pygmy Blue) and the largest (Queen Alexandra's Birdwing), an incredible variety of butterflies are celebrated here in all of their beauty and wonder. Perfect for a child's bedroom bookshelf or for a classroom reading circle!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780811864794
Publisher:	Chronicle Books LLC
Publication date:	05/18/2011
Series:	Family Treasure Nature Encylopedias Series
Pages:	40
Sales rank:	153,686
Product dimensions:	9.20(w) x 11.20(h) x 0.50(d)
Lexile:	AD1040L (what's this?)
Age Range:	5 - 8 Years

About the Author

Dianna Hutts Aston is the author of many books for children and is the founder of the nonprofit foundation for disadvantaged children, The Oz Project. She lives in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.

Sylvia Long is the illustrator of many best-selling books for children, including Sylvia Long's Mother Goose and Hush Little Baby. She lives in Scottsdale, Arizona, with her husband and their dogs.

Editorial Reviews

This companion to An Egg Is Quiet and A Seed Is Sleepy is as delicate, elegant, and informative as its predecessors. Under headings that echo the book's title ("A butterfly is helpful," "A butterfly is poisonous"), Aston explores the development, habits, migration, and attributes of one of nature's flashier, yet familiar creations. Long's watercolors are precise but enchanting as ever, especially in the "A butterfly is spectacular!" spread, which shows the colorful diversity of more than a dozen specimens, and in another devoted to the migration of monarch butterflies, seen swarming over a quiet desert. A lovely mix of science and wonder. Ages 5–8. (June)

Publishers Weekly

"Similar butterfly albums abound, but none show these most decorative members of the insect clan to better advantage" - Kirkus Reviews

"This lovely combination of elegant watercolors and lyrical text is both eye-catching and informative" - School Library Journal Starred Review

"A lovely mix of science and wonder." - Publishers Weekly Starred Review

"[T]his beautiful book... invites 5- to 10-year-olds to enjoy the variety, complexity and sumptuousness of natural things" - The Wall Street Journal

From the Publisher

K-Gr 3—A companion to the equally stylish An Egg Is Quiet (Chronicle, 2006), this lovely combination of elegant watercolors and lyrical text is both eye-catching and informative. Readers follow the creatures from egg to flight as Aston takes them through the process of metamorphosis while describing various behavioral traits. With wing scales "stacked like shingles on a roof," the butterflies come to life. While noting differences between moths and butterflies, the author makes no mention of the former's "fluffier" antennae, and there is no definition for the term "instar" (which appears in an illustration caption). The Monarch migration gets a star turn, along with a veritable litany of names—Diana Fritillary, Ruddy Daggerwing, Painted Jezebel, and Elbowed Pierrot—as worthy of recitation as the dinosaur appellations so beloved of children. A lyrical, colorful, and elegant production.—Patricia Manning, formerly at Eastchester Public Library, NY

School Library Journal

Another interwoven flight of poetry, natural history and lovely art from the creators ofAn Egg Is Quiet(2006) andA Seed Is Sleepy(2007).

Beneath hand-scripted headers that sometimes take license with facts but create lyrical overtones ("A butterfly is creative"), Aston offers specific and accurate descriptions of metamorphosis, pollination, camouflage, migration and other butterfly features and functions, along with the differences between butterflies and moths. Imagination-stretching comparisons—"monarchs weigh only as much as a few rose petals," the wingspan of the Arian Small Blue is "about the length of a grain of rice"—lend wings to the body of facts, and though the author avoids direct mention of reproduction or death, a quick closing recapitulation that harks back to the opening page's hatching egg provides an artful hint of life's cyclical pattern. With finely crafted, carefully detailed close-up watercolors, Long depicts dozens of caterpillars and butterflies, each one posed to best advantage, unobtrusively labeled and so lifelike that it's almost a surprise to page back and find them in the same positions.

Similar butterfly albums abound, but none show these most decorative members of the insect clan to better advantage.(Informational picture book. 8-10)

Kirkus Reviews