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FLY, MONARCH! FLY! by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace

FLY, MONARCH! FLY!

by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace & illustrated by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace

Pub Date: March 1st, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-7614-5425-0
Publisher: Marshall Cavendish

Wallace has created another winner with her latest starring Minna and Pip. This time the rabbit family bikes to Butterfly Place, a natural outdoor habitat for monarchs designed to teach visitors about butterflies. With signs, pictures and their guide Bert’s blue bag of materials, the siblings follow the life cycle of a butterfly from egg, through larva and pupa, to adult. Along the way they search the milkweed leaves for eggs, use Bert’s costumes to become caterpillars and molt, see several pupae at different stages, use party blowers to simulate a butterfly’s proboscis and don wings to learn about butterfly migration. Definitions and pronunciation aids abound, but do not overwhelm the story. Jokes and wordplay break up the learning, along with some simple activities to do at home. Backmatter includes more information about monarchs, instructions for planting a butterfly garden and some general resources. Wallace’s trademark cut-paper artwork adds depth, texture and dimension to her illustrations, which seem to pop off the pages. With this in hand, there is no reason why any child cannot raise a monarch. (Informational picture book. 3-8)