by Kjell B Sandved
This is a fantastic book for multiple ages or abilities. Each page has a letter, a butterfly, and a closeup of a part of the butterfly, showcasing the letter in the design of the butterfly. Younger children will enjoy identifying the letter in the large, close-up picture while older children already very familiar with letters will enjoy hunting for the letter on the whole butterfly. Truth be told, we didn’t even read most of the words, the kids were so busy letter hunting.
by Bill Martin Jr
In this ordinal counting book, 10 different caterpillars explore their world. As they explore some fall prey to predators or garden hazards, but one makes a chrysalis and becomes a butterfly. Each of the 10 caterpillars is a different species and, it appears, in their natural habitat with appropriate markings, rendered in beautiful watercolors. The last couple pages showcase each caterpillar, what is eats and the moth or butterfly it becomes. I really liked how the caterpillars were realistic, portrayed as you would see them in the wild. My inquisitive preschooler loved the scientific information in the back.
My, Oh My–A Butterfly!: All About Butterflies (Cat in the Hat’s Learning Library)
by Trish Rage
This book is from the Cat in the Hat’s Learning Library, which is a series of wonderful books. They are educational, including scientific facts that many picture books leave out,
like that the caterpullar eats its skin after shedding it. The book also has interesting trivia, like the largest and smallest butterflies. We really, really enjoyed the comparisons,
“If we grew as fast as they do-
this was funny to us-
in two weeks, we would each
be as big as a bus!”
These books are the perfect match of sing songy, entertaing lyrics and factual scientific explanations.
Where’s My Mom?
by Julia Donaldson
In this sweet book an adult butterfly helps a worried baby monkey look for his mom. When the butterfly offers to help, the monkey gives a description of his mom, “She’s big!”. This leads the butterfly to an elephant, the exasperated monkey says, “No”, and gives another description. This continues through many more animals before the monkey explains to the butterfly that his mom looks like him. Of course the butterfly doesn’t think of this since her baby caterpillars look nothing like her. This book is especially good for toddlers, but my preschooler enjoyed it as well.
Clara Caterpillar
by Pamela Duncan Edwards
Conceited Catisha caterpillar is very rude and mean towards plain Clara caterpillar because Catisha knows Clara is a plain cabbage butterfly. She’s surprised then when Clara uses her plain cream colored wing as camouflage to save the bright red Catisha from a hungry crow. The book uses a lot of ‘c’ words and is ranked by our library as encouraging the literacy skills vocabulary and phonological awareness. I thought it taught a couple good lessons: people have different strengths, be nice to others, and friends are important.