What do you think?
Rate this book
Nature Storybooks
Caterpillar Butterfly
A picture book which combines story with information helps curious young minds discover each stage in the journey, from wriggly green caterpillar to the beautiful butterfly.
- GenresPicture BooksChildrens
32 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2008
47 people want to read
About the author
Vivian French
592 books142 followersVivian June Isoult French MBE was born in 1945 and educated at Exeter University.
Vivian French was best known in school for being extremely skinny and for talking a lot. At school she developed an attachment to words and later became an actor, then a storyteller, and finally a writer of children's books. She is the author of more than two hundred books. Ms. French lives in Edinburgh, Scotland, and has four grown daughters.
Vivian French was best known in school for being extremely skinny and for talking a lot. At school she developed an attachment to words and later became an actor, then a storyteller, and finally a writer of children's books. She is the author of more than two hundred books. Ms. French lives in Edinburgh, Scotland, and has four grown daughters.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
January 16, 2018
Caterpillar Butterfly is about a young girl learning from her Grandad about caterpillars and how they become butterflies. From tiny caterpillar eggs, to their changing bodies, onto the pupa and then the end result being a beautiful caterpillar.
The factual information was told in a story. Whilst the story was pleasant enough, we never learn the girls name, so it felt a little impersonal. I also had an issue with the illustrations. There were lovely, but they were dull, colour wise. They also had a roughness to them which I wasn’t keen on. Another issue I had with the book was that on the pages was writing in various place telling you information. This was written in small text and light in colour. I actually missed a few of them the first time I read it.
Overall the plot is nice enough, there is a lot of factual information and the book would work well in a classroom, in fact it has been written with the classroom in mind. Just could of done with brighter illustrations and more vivid text.
There is a section at the back which the author has included for teachers and how the book supports KS1-2 English and KS1-2 Science.
The factual information was told in a story. Whilst the story was pleasant enough, we never learn the girls name, so it felt a little impersonal. I also had an issue with the illustrations. There were lovely, but they were dull, colour wise. They also had a roughness to them which I wasn’t keen on. Another issue I had with the book was that on the pages was writing in various place telling you information. This was written in small text and light in colour. I actually missed a few of them the first time I read it.
Overall the plot is nice enough, there is a lot of factual information and the book would work well in a classroom, in fact it has been written with the classroom in mind. Just could of done with brighter illustrations and more vivid text.
There is a section at the back which the author has included for teachers and how the book supports KS1-2 English and KS1-2 Science.
August 4, 2020
Vivian shares with us a memory with her grandfather who loved to garden and adored butterflies so he planted what attracted them like nettles and cabbage, and pea sticks. All the information about butterflies and their birth cycle is new to me, it was a wonderful read. I want one just like it for bees and ants.
September 28, 2016
This is a combination of a story as well as fact, allowing the reader to learn about the life cycle of butterflies while enjoying a story about a girl and her grandfather.
April 17, 2018
This is a great book to show kids how caterpillars become butterflies but I’m afraid I just didn’t find it as good as others in the Nature Storybooks series that I’ve read. The paperback, wider than A4 in width but shorter is filled with thick glossy pages that contain both colourful illustrations and text. The book is a non-fiction which teaches all about the life cycle of a caterpillar to the stage it becomes a butterfly, but it has a story element making this easier for children to understand it.
The ‘story’, told from the point of view of the author herself, follows the little girl as she tells of the time she spent with her grandfather who grew stinging nettles in his garden because they grow butterflies. The girl’s grandfather shows her the eggs on the leaves of the nettles and after waiting a while she sees them hatched into small caterpillars which soon grow big and eventually turn into butterflies. This story is good but it somehow didn’t feel as engaging as other similar ones by the same author like ‘Growing Frogs’ and ‘Yucky Worms’. I’m not sure if it’s the story itself though or the illustrations but something about this didn’t feel as interesting as those other books.
The illustrations are lovely and similar to some I’ve seen in other books. I don’t actually think there’s anything wrong or bad about the illustrations, they are lovely and in a style I do enjoy, however I can’t help but feel that, when compared to other books, there is a lot missing and the pictures could have had more. For example, when the butterfly is finally revealed, although we see it flying away, we never see it’s beautiful wings fully which would have made the story of the pretty butterfly all the more appealing. The illustrations, in parts, also make things like the peacock caterpillars white spots difficult to see. I only noticed any spots drawn the second time I looked at this book. It just feels like there could be more shown and perhaps this style of illustration, as lovely as it is, makes it hard to be as engaged as you could be reading this. Of course this is just my opinion.
The things that you learn about the caterpillars are interesting, like with other Nature Storybooks there are small snippets of text among the larger ones. These smaller snippets are in a font that was for me a bit difficult to read so I’m not sure if it will be easy for some children or not. The back of the book has a notes to teachers and parents section on how to use this book with kids and it supports Key Stages 1-2 of both Science and English so it’s a good book to use as a learning aid both in school and at home. The before last page also has extra pictures of different butterflies, their names underneath each one, which was a great addition as I didn’t know many species of butterflies and many kids might not either. However some of these pictures were again of the side-look of the butterfly and never the open wings which I think would have been good to see as butterflies can seem almost magical when you see some of their beautiful patterns. I think kids would engage much more if they could see these colourful wing images and it could give them a chance to spot these butterflies outside.
I do believe that this book could have been better, less text and more images perhaps or better and more colourful ones. But on the whole it is still a great book for teaching about the life cycle of caterpillars and how they turn to butterflies. Everything explained in the book is done in a simple and easy to understand way, and I found the autobiographical aspect of this book (the author writing of her own experience as the story) fun.
-Thanks to Walker Books for a free copy.
The ‘story’, told from the point of view of the author herself, follows the little girl as she tells of the time she spent with her grandfather who grew stinging nettles in his garden because they grow butterflies. The girl’s grandfather shows her the eggs on the leaves of the nettles and after waiting a while she sees them hatched into small caterpillars which soon grow big and eventually turn into butterflies. This story is good but it somehow didn’t feel as engaging as other similar ones by the same author like ‘Growing Frogs’ and ‘Yucky Worms’. I’m not sure if it’s the story itself though or the illustrations but something about this didn’t feel as interesting as those other books.
The illustrations are lovely and similar to some I’ve seen in other books. I don’t actually think there’s anything wrong or bad about the illustrations, they are lovely and in a style I do enjoy, however I can’t help but feel that, when compared to other books, there is a lot missing and the pictures could have had more. For example, when the butterfly is finally revealed, although we see it flying away, we never see it’s beautiful wings fully which would have made the story of the pretty butterfly all the more appealing. The illustrations, in parts, also make things like the peacock caterpillars white spots difficult to see. I only noticed any spots drawn the second time I looked at this book. It just feels like there could be more shown and perhaps this style of illustration, as lovely as it is, makes it hard to be as engaged as you could be reading this. Of course this is just my opinion.
The things that you learn about the caterpillars are interesting, like with other Nature Storybooks there are small snippets of text among the larger ones. These smaller snippets are in a font that was for me a bit difficult to read so I’m not sure if it will be easy for some children or not. The back of the book has a notes to teachers and parents section on how to use this book with kids and it supports Key Stages 1-2 of both Science and English so it’s a good book to use as a learning aid both in school and at home. The before last page also has extra pictures of different butterflies, their names underneath each one, which was a great addition as I didn’t know many species of butterflies and many kids might not either. However some of these pictures were again of the side-look of the butterfly and never the open wings which I think would have been good to see as butterflies can seem almost magical when you see some of their beautiful patterns. I think kids would engage much more if they could see these colourful wing images and it could give them a chance to spot these butterflies outside.
I do believe that this book could have been better, less text and more images perhaps or better and more colourful ones. But on the whole it is still a great book for teaching about the life cycle of caterpillars and how they turn to butterflies. Everything explained in the book is done in a simple and easy to understand way, and I found the autobiographical aspect of this book (the author writing of her own experience as the story) fun.
-Thanks to Walker Books for a free copy.
January 3, 2018
An extremely informative book, largely about caterpillars rather than butterflies, which explains the different types of both and how a caterpillar becomes a butterfly; one section looks solely at what each type of caterpillar is willing to eat - who knew they were so fussy?
The story is one in which the author and her grandfather have had conversations when she was growing up about the caterpillar eggs in the garden and how they develop piece by piece into something so beautiful as a butterfly. The dialogue is both informative and easy to read so it doesn't ever feel like a non-fiction fact-file, even though in part it actually is I suppose.
The only thing I felt slightly disappointed with was the illustrations. The colours are not particularly vibrant, only really featuring butterflies at the very end, and whilst this showcases a few different types of butterfly to learn about nothing really jumped off the page throughout the story. This makes it quite difficult to engage younger readers who use the pictures to help tie together or tell the story at first.
Nevertheless, a nice addition to the Nature Storybooks Collection.
ARC provided free from the publishers in exchange for an honest review.
The story is one in which the author and her grandfather have had conversations when she was growing up about the caterpillar eggs in the garden and how they develop piece by piece into something so beautiful as a butterfly. The dialogue is both informative and easy to read so it doesn't ever feel like a non-fiction fact-file, even though in part it actually is I suppose.
The only thing I felt slightly disappointed with was the illustrations. The colours are not particularly vibrant, only really featuring butterflies at the very end, and whilst this showcases a few different types of butterfly to learn about nothing really jumped off the page throughout the story. This makes it quite difficult to engage younger readers who use the pictures to help tie together or tell the story at first.
Nevertheless, a nice addition to the Nature Storybooks Collection.
ARC provided free from the publishers in exchange for an honest review.
May 8, 2017
It was boring for me. -Eitvydas
A very good book. -Diane
Very good fact book. -Aoife
It sounds like a fiction book but it is a non-fiction book. -Ahmed
It was amazing. -Cathal
I liked when the butterflies came out because to me, butterflies are really pretty. -Mila
When the cocoon was hatching I thought that a massive moth would come out, not a cute butterfly. -Michal
I don't like nettles but it was okay. -Bella
It was amazing but it was kind of awkward because I'm still trying to find someone who knows what the butterfly eggs were made of. -Tarik
For an adult it would be boring and for children that are 7 or 8 that's really, really amazing. -Darya
It was nice to learn about the butterfly life cycle. -Erin
It was a long story but I thought it was amazing. -Lilly
I guess you can learn something..?! -Patryk
I didn't like it. -Marcel
A very good book. -Diane
Very good fact book. -Aoife
It sounds like a fiction book but it is a non-fiction book. -Ahmed
It was amazing. -Cathal
I liked when the butterflies came out because to me, butterflies are really pretty. -Mila
When the cocoon was hatching I thought that a massive moth would come out, not a cute butterfly. -Michal
I don't like nettles but it was okay. -Bella
It was amazing but it was kind of awkward because I'm still trying to find someone who knows what the butterfly eggs were made of. -Tarik
For an adult it would be boring and for children that are 7 or 8 that's really, really amazing. -Darya
It was nice to learn about the butterfly life cycle. -Erin
It was a long story but I thought it was amazing. -Lilly
I guess you can learn something..?! -Patryk
I didn't like it. -Marcel
January 2, 2018
Personally I enjoyed it because it gives a good introduction to metamorphosis in a seemingly non scientific way and yet it is accurate .It would suit nature loving children but the illustrations are rather weak and the idea of the he book would be better with stronger illustration
October 31, 2018
Beautifully illustrated book about the life cycle of the peacock butterfly.
June 4, 2019
Really nicely done
October 21, 2019
Informative and beautifully illustrated.
My daughter enjoyed and loved this book by learning about different stages from an egg to a butterfly.
My daughter enjoyed and loved this book by learning about different stages from an egg to a butterfly.
January 13, 2024
I love buterflies so i raelly enjoyed🌿🐛🦋
November 24, 2009
This picture book talks all about the life cycle of a caterpillar as the little girl follows and watches each step. It is really a story within a story- one is about the little girl, and the other is about the caterpillar. Although it has some really great information about the life cycle of a caterpillar, the font of the informational text makes it really hard to read. The illustrations in this book were great, but I think the font looks too much like it is trying to look like the illustrations, making it hard to read. It would be a good book to have as a resource when talking about the life cycles of animals.
October 15, 2012
This is my review of ‘ Caterpillar Butterfly’. This book is not as interesting as the ones I came across before. Its about the natural history of a caterpillar that turns into a butterfly, the book describes the processes in which this happens. Its probably good for using as a teaching tool, well some of it. Its not that great.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews