Butterfly Story

Children's Literature - Judy Silverman

A story so beautiful that at first you don't realize that you're reading an accurate story of how a butterfly lives. The pictures are absolutely gorgeous. Hariton, trained as an artist and an architect, has designed the book so that you feel that you could walk into the forest. The butterfly, Vanessa atalanta, of the Nymphalidae, isn't brightly colored, but is very distinctive. And very beautiful.

School Library Journal

PreS-Gr 3-This introduction focuses on the life cycle of the common red admiral butterfly. Brief text describes each stage in its metamorphosis. One or more attractive watercolors illustrate each page. On the whole, they are realistic in style; however, some renditions of the insect's habitat are heavily stylized and too blandly pretty to be natural. A one-page appendix, in smaller print and with a more difficult vocabulary, introduces and defines some scientific terms not employed in the main text, outlines the species' geographic range, and describes major physical characteristics in more detail. While the text is well organized, there are some important omissions. Although the process of molting is described, the term itself is not used, nor does the term ``larva'' appear anywhere. Also, mating is only alluded to. Gail Gibbons's Monarch Butterfly (Holiday, 1989) includes more scientific terms and offers a diagram of body parts. Heiderose and Andreas Fischer-Nagel's Life of the Butterfly (Carolrhoda, 1987) has more information on related species and is illustrated with excellent full-color photographs. More realistic paintings of a butterfly's metamorphosis can be found in Joanne Ryder's marvelously detailed Where Butterflies Grow (Lodestar, 1989). All in all, Hariton's title is superfluous.-Karey Wehner, San Francisco Public Library

Lauren Peterson

g for reading aloud. As in "Egg Story" (1992), which depicts the development of chicks from egg to hatching, Hariton creates another story of development in an appealing picture-book format. This time she turns her attention to the butterfly, specifically the red admiral. In simple terms, she presents information on the five-week process that transforms the fuzzy, green caterpillar into a colorful, red-striped butterfly. The feeling of transformation is helped along through abundant watercolor illustrations, which are dominated by spring green hues early on, then later, warmer tones. The paintings range in size from double-page spreads to smaller "snapshot"-size ones that often appear two to a page with text sandwiched in between. Hariton introduces some basic science vocabulary (such as, "pupa", "scales", and "nectar"), but nicely avoids the more difficult term "metamorphosis". For teachers, parents, and older siblings, she includes a more detailed, sophisticated explanation of the process at the back of the book.