Farfallina & Marcel

Holly Keller

ISBN 10: 1435273990 ISBN 13: 9781435273993

Synopsis

Once there was a caterpillar named Farfallina, whose best friend was a gosling named Marcel. They did everything together -- until one day, everything started to change.

This beautiful and touching story shows that even as life takes different turns, friendship endures.

About this title

About the Author

Holly Keller has illustrated a number of books in the Lets-Read-and-Find-Out Science series, including Be a Friend to Trees. She is also the author and illustrator of many picture books, including Island Baby and Horace.

Ms. Keller lives in West Redding, Connecticut.

Holly Keller has illustrated a number of books in the Lets-Read-and-Find-Out Science series, including Be a Friend to Trees. She is also the author and illustrator of many picture books, including Island Baby and Horace.

Ms. Keller lives in West Redding, Connecticut.

From Publishers Weekly

Keller (Cecil's Garden) introduces a caterpillar and gosling in a deceptively simple story of friendship and transformation. They meet in a rain shower one day: " `Hey,' said a little voice./ `You're eating my umbrella," says feathered Marcel as Farfallina (whose name means "little butterfly" in Italian) nibbles on a leaf over his head. With a minimum of text, Keller describes the charming friendship's beginnings. When they play hide-and-seek, Farfallina hides under a low fern "because she knew that Marcel couldn't climb." In turn, Marcel hides behind a nearby tree "because he knew that Farfallina moved slowly." A full-page full-bleed painting shows Farfallina riding on the gosling's back across a lily-pad-dotted pond. One day, the caterpillar announces that she needs to climb onto a tree branch and rest for a while, and her patient pal settles in the grass to wait for her. A series of paintings follows each friend's metamorphosis Marcel's change in plumage, Farfallina's emergence from her cocoon. Finally reunited, neither creature recognizes the other and again bond as friends nonetheless. When they realize each other's true identities, Keller conveys their joy with the pair's fluttering of wings, and their quiet repose in an eloquently serene spread as they fall asleep "smiling at the stars." Keller's ending remains true to both nature and friendship that lasts through the seasons in this perfectly paced book. Ages 4-up.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 1435273990
• ISBN 13: 9781435273993
• Binding: Library Binding