Butterfly

by Bobbie Kalman

A monarch born in the fall has two major challenges! In addition to metamorphosis, these butterflies fly 4,000 miles on a two-way migration trek! The Life Cycle of a Butterfly explains butterfly metamorphosis and migration in simple terms. The text is beautifully illustrated with photographs and art, making this book a joy to read. Topics - where butterflies lay their eggs - the "eating machine" caterpillar - the transformation from pupa to chrysalis to butterfly - monarch migration - butterfly facts and activity suggestions - how to protect butterflies

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Childrens

32 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1997

About the author

Bobbie Kalman is the award-winning author of more than 400 non-fiction books. She established herself as a leading author in children’s non-fiction in the 1980’s and 90’s with two acclaimed series about pioneer life, The Early Settler Life Series (15 titles) and The Historic Communities Series (31 titles), both published by Crabtree Publishing. She has created many of Crabtree’s most popular series, which also include The Native Nations of North America Series (19 titles), The Lands, Peoples, and Cultures Series (93 titles), and The Science of Living Things Series (32 titles), among others.

Born in Hungary in 1947, Bobbie and her family escaped to Austria during the Hungarian Revolution in 1956. The family spent several weeks there as refugees before immigrating to North America. A former teacher, Bobbie Kalman taught at both the elementary and secondary levels. She also spent several years working as an educational consultant for several publishing companies. Bobbie holds degrees in English, Psychology, and Education. She is married and has four children and three grandchildren.

Although best known for her non-fiction, Bobbie’s newest book is autobiographical. Released in September, 2006, Refugee Child is the account of Bobbie and her family’s escape from Hungary when she was just nine years old. Written to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the Hungarian Revolution in October of 2006, the book is told from the perspective of a young girl.

Reviews

[Corinne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great and information-heavy book. The book has beautiful illustrations and pictures in it that help a child visualize what is really happening in the cocoon, how they evolve, and why they are created the way that they are. However, something I really enjoyed about this book is that it didn't only talk about the monarch butterflies life cycle and the science behind it, but it talked about the dangers that they face and also the migration and life of a butterfly. In the past, I have only seen books that focus on he biological side. This book focuses more logistically on what every day life looks like for the monarch butterflies. It focuses on the dangers that they face and what their predators are. They talk about the migration patterns during the span of the butterfly's life. One thing I do wish this book had more about what they eat, how they mate, and where they tend to be found. I think what this book did have was very helpful and can be so helpful for a child to read in order to learn more about this specific type of butterfly.

[Morgan Hatfield · Rating 5 out of 5]

I give this book a 5 star rating, this is a fun and engaging book for students to read. It teaches them the Life Cycle of a Butterfly, learning new things they might not of known about butterflies before. Each page talks about the stage of a butterflies life, the pictures on each page are very realistic allowing students to see what a butterfly looks like. This book also discusses different types of butterflies there are in the world, showing the difference and similarities between them. This book would be fun to do as a start of a lesson as well. For example, a lesson made after this could involve getting your own caterpillar for you class and watching the caterpillar turn into a butterfly.

[Madison Seniuk · Rating 4 out of 5]

1. None
2. Ages 6-9
3. This book goes through the life cycle of a butterfly. It starts with the caterpillar and works its way through to being a butterfly.
4. This is a fun book to read because children will really like learning about the butterflies life cycle. It's also a really good book because it easy for the children to understand. Also, the illustrations are very detailed and children will ever excited seeing them.
5. This would be a good book to read before a science lesson. This would be a good book to read right before a lesson about butterflies because it will help tie the lesson in to all aspects of the classroom and not just the science section.

[Jason · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eeeeeeee

[Katie Fitzgerald · Rating 3 out of 5]

The titles in this series all follow the same formula, so they become repetitive after a while. This has been fine for my 4 year old, but a bit boring for my 6 year old. Also, it was not clear from the title, but this entire book is just about monarch butterflies, not about butterflies generally.

[Phuong Dao · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is about the life cycle of the butterfly. It talks about how the butterfly change it form. First it start out as an egg on the leaf, then it become the catepillar, and then it becomes the butterfly. This book is good to teach about the life cycle of insect. It is recommend for the second grade GPS standard.

[Emily Eichstadt]

This is a non-fiction informational text on the life cycle of a butterfly. I think it has great graphics and explanations and would be a nice book to use for a science unit.

[Kalynda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very thorough non-fiction picture book about monarchs. Great for a classroom resource or for a student interest project.

[Lauri Meyers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great detailed photography of the life cycle of a monarch. Make vs female identification . Migration. Raising a monarch. Butterfly garden. (Crabtree , 2002)