An Extraordinary Life: The Story of a Monarch Butterfly - Softcover

Laurence Pringle

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0439288665 ISBN 13: 9780439288668

Publisher: Scholastic, 2001

Synopsis

Introduces the life cycle, feeding habits, migration, predators, and mating of the monarch butterfly through the observation of one particular monarch named Danaus.

About this title

From School Library Journal

Grade 4-8. Even libraries that already own Ethan Herberman's The Great Butterfly Hunt (S & S, 1990; o.p.), Kathryn Lasky's Monarchs (Harcourt, 1993), and Bianca Lavies's Monarch Butterflies (Dutton, 1993) need this book. It is written as a story, following the life cycle of a female caterpillar?Danaus?from an egg laid in a Massachusetts hayfield to her death in an Arkansas pasture many months and a fantastic migration later. The narrative is scientifically sound and includes information from the most recent research on these familiar aerial flitterers. The attractive, oversized book is lavished with realistic, full-color paintings of Monarchs in all stages of their development and their habitats. Colorful sidebars and a variety of maps are accompanied by informative captions, and the whole is arranged into a particularly appealing, readable, and accurate package. A modicum of anthropomorphism does occur, but it is infrequent and low-key. An effort to avoid an onrushing car or the state of a heavily gravid female Monarch with no milkweed in sight may well be "frantic," and these slight slippages are unobtrusive. Following the body of the work are chapters on protecting the remaining winter refuges of these feather-light migrants and on raising Monarchs at home or in the classroom. A list of further readings?many of them juvenile titles?and an index complete the harmonious whole.?Patricia Manning, formerly at Eastchester Public Library, NY
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

A migration flight from New England to Mexico and back again would be impressive for a large goose; for a monarch butterfly, it's nothing short of miraculous. Pringle (Smoking, 1996, etc.) and Marstall capture that miracle in this chronicle of the lifetime of a monarch called Danaus (after its Latin name). Readers follow Danaus on her perilous journey from Massachusetts, slipping through cat paws and struggling with bad weather until she and thousands of other monarchs find their winter homes in Mexico and California. Even there, life is dangerous: Cold weather and predators kill off many monarchs before spring arrives, when they mate, fly north, lay their eggs, and die. Pringle writes simply of all the small, fascinating details that make up the monarch's life cycle, while illustrations and captions help readers visualize the information, e.g., that delicate gold dots on a monarch's chrysalis may help disguise the chrysalis from predators by reflecting sunlight like drops of dew, and the caterpillar's markings warn predators that it eats milkweed, making it poisonous to some. Marstall provides nearly photorealistic views of biological processes, but never neglects the poetic aspect of the information. A superb, well-researched book that finds extraordinary science in the everyday life of a butterfly. (maps, diagrams, further reading, index) (Nonfiction. 8-12) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Edition details

• Publisher: Scholastic
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0439288665
• ISBN 13: 9780439288668
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 64