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Becoming Butterflies
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9 new or used available from CDN$ 0.21
Average customer review:
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Product Description
One day Miss Dana brings a surprise to school—three striped caterpillars and a flowerpot full of milkweed. Her students can’t believe that these tiny, wriggling creatures less than an inch long will grow into butterflies, fragile beauties strong enough to fly thousands of miles to their winter home in Mexico.
And so begins a magical month of metamorphosis. The children observe and draw the changes they see as the caterpillars transform themselves right before their eyes. When the newly formed butterflies break free of their chrysalises, it is time for the class to let them go find their place in the world.
This captivating concept book simply and eloquently invites young children to witness and celebrate the cycle of life.
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #1999990 in Books
- Published on: 2002-04-01
- Original language: English
- Binding: Hardcover
- 1 pages
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
The team behind One Bean and Pumpkin Day, Pumpkin Night join up for a lesson on metamorphosis in Becoming Butterflies by Anne Rockwell, illus. by Megan Halsey. Cut-paper collage creates a three-dimensional effect in Miss Dana's classroom; the students' pictures record the chrysalis stage and the butterflies' emergence. Front endpapers label different caterpillars, while the back endpapers picture the butterflies they become, labeled with common and scientific names.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
reSchool-Grade 2--Every preschool or primary teacher who orders a brown box of live caterpillars will want to read this book aloud. When his teacher brings three monarch caterpillars and a milkweed plant to class, the young narrator follows their transformation with the same questions and concerns of young students in any classroom. His multicultural classmates track the changes in the caterpillars through drawings, and sadly wave good-bye through the window as the butterflies fly away. Without an unnecessary word of explanation, the text makes clear the science of metamorphosis, and leavens the story with the humor of the children's comments. The illustrations are watercolors with pieces of cut paper layered to give depth. They are childlike without being primitive and give fine support for the scientific observation. An endnote offers more details for adults and a Web site, and clever endpapers show the caterpillars of others species at the front of the book and their butterflies at the back. Amid the many books on the topic, this one is a standout for the age group.
Ellen Heath, Orchard School, Ridgewood, NJ
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Ages 4-7. Armed with three caterpillars and a flowerpot of milkweed, Miss Dana engages her class in a project: watching caterpillars become monarch butterflies. A personable student describes what happens--from feeding the caterpillars and the building of the chrysalis to the butterflies' hatching and release. The project continues as the students correspond with students in Mexico, where most monarch butterflies traditionally migrate. Metamorphosis information is presented in an age-appropriate way. Children will easily relate to the narrator's lively descriptions and youthful perspective ("ick!"), as well as to the impatience and their wonder as the beautiful butterflies finally appear. Cheerful watercolor and collage art, figurative though simplistic, nicely captures both the process and kids' reactions. An endnote briefly discusses monarchs, and there's a Web site address where more information can be found. The endpapers are labeled drawings of other types of butterflies and their corresponding caterpillars. An accessible introduction to an intriguing classroom or home project. Shelle Rosenfeld
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