The Story of a Butterfly: Learn about the Life Cycle and Habitat of the Painted Lady by Margaret Rose Reed, pictures by Manu Montoya

            The Story of a Butterfly: Learn about the Life Cycle and Habitat of the Painted Lady by Margaret Rose Reed, pictures by Manu Montoya, Sourcebooks Explore, 2022. 9781728261447

Rating: 1-5 (5 is an excellent or a Starred review) 4

Format: Paperback ARC (published 9/2022)

What did you like about the book? When the class visits a butterfly garden, two little girls are entranced with the Painted Lady.  They see the eggs the butterfly has laid on the leaves, they find a Painted Lady caterpillar and many from other species. They find a chrysalis and learn how it came to be. And about the butterfly that will emerge. Back at school they wonder why there are no butterflies.  They decide to plant their very own butterfly garden filled with flowers that will attract butterflies. They even manage to build and plant a Community Butterfly Garden!  Four more pages of information about Painted Lady butterflies is included along with an explanation of the difference between butterflies and moths. The children and adults are of various hues.  In this ARC edition of the book, the illustrations are quite flat but still display the life cycle of the butterfly, the exploration and discoveries of the children, and the creation of a butterfly garden.

Anything you did not like about the book? No.

To whom would you recommend this book? Monarch butterflies are explored in depth in books for children but this one of the Painted Lady definitely fills a gap.

Who should buy this book? Public and elementary school libraries

Where would you shelve it? 595.78

Should we (librarians) put this on the top of our “to read” piles? No.

Reviewer’s Name, Library (or school), City: Katrina Yurenka, Retired Librarian, Contributor, Youth Services Book Review

Date of Review: April 20, 2022