A Butterfly Is Patient (Aston/Long Nature Books)

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)

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

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