Review by Booklist Review
This beautiful saga documents monarch butterfly migration, beginning in North America, sweeping across the U.S., and ending in Mexico, flocking entire forests with their delicate bodies before heading back north again. Simple, declarative sentences, describing how tiny eggs produce caterpillars that eventually spin cocoons and transform into brilliant butterflies, which then fly thousands of miles, accompany the vivid, richly colored paintings. As the monarchs start their grueling migration, vibrant, double-page spreads spill across pages. Monarchs are shown flitting through meadows, soaring over frothy green waterfalls and muted gray cityscapes, hiding under leaves on rainy days, and transforming dark woods with their sunny presence. Their bright, black-and-orange markings pop against backgrounds, which helps emphasize how thrilling the migration can be. This celebration of the beauty, wonder, and resilience of monarchs would pair well with Elizabeth Wallace's Fly, Monarch, Fly! (2008) and Mary Alice Monroe's A Butterfly Called Hope (2013), which are aimed at the same age group and contain more general facts. An author's note offers additional information about the butterflies' mysterious journey.--McBroom, Kathleen Copyright 2015 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Shingu follows Wandering Whale Sharks with a quiet look at the life cycle of a monarch butterfly, from a tiny egg to its emergence from a chrysalis: "Her new wings look like stained glass." Solid backgrounds in white, gray and piercing shades of blue provide maximum contrast to the butterflies' trademark orange wings, making for some dramatic moments. Migrating south, the butterflies hover over a waterfall, city rooftops, and villages; in a southern forest, they mate and "slumber in peace," clustering in honeycomblike formations. Shingu's economical yet poetic language is well-suited to the sparseness of his images, and a closing note discusses the mystery of how monarchs know to fly the same route year after year. Ages 4-8. (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 2-A monarch caterpillar wakes inside a tiny egg in a "country up north." Munching on milkweed, she grows, transforms into a butterfly with wings "like stained glass," and takes off on the southward wind. Employing sparse but expressive text, Shingu follows a group of monarchs making their way over a waterfall and through a big city and a village before arriving in the southern forest to mate and begin the return journey. A successful sculptor and installation artist with a deep interest in the natural world, Shingu provides lush, bold illustrations; the butterflies' wing markings stand out brilliantly against gray, vivid green, and summer sky blue backgrounds. A portrayal of seven monarchs resting under shady leaves in a rainstorm evokes the landscape settings of 19th-century woodblock artists. On another page, eight butterflies are rendered in a range of sizes according to perspective; beneath them simple strokes in a range of blues suggest a lake in summer, at once dynamic and languorous. One error mars the work. On one spread, the caterpillar "wraps a cocoon around herself," rather than a chrysalis; however, cocoons are produced by moths. The volume concludes with a section called "More About Monarch Butterflies," which describes the monarch's astonishing migration from Canada to Mexico. VERDICT A brief but useful introduction to butterfly ecology, this title is recommended for students with interest in science or art.-Bob Hassett, Luther Jackson Middle School, Falls Church, VA © Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
This simple, elegant picture book traces the migration of the monarch butterfly from its northern home to its winter sanctuary in Mexico and back again. The story begins with eggs as small as a dewdrop on a milkweed leaf and progresses as caterpillars hatch from the eggs, then grow, and then spin cocoons; butterflies emerge and take flight, traveling thousands of miles; and the whole process repeats itself. Shingus account is at once poetic and informative. The natural grace of the language pairs beautifully with the straightforward depiction of cities, towns, and countryside traversed by the butterflies. Spare text, translated from the Japanese, is reproduced in a clean, open typeface. Each spread features the artists vivid paintings of the insects, with brilliant close-ups alternating with sweeping butterflys-eye vistas, offering the reader an impression of the creatures migration that is both intimate and expansive. An end note provides some scientific information about the migratory process. This is a contemplative celebration of a single facet of the natural world, perfectly suited for shared reading. thom barthelmess (c) Copyright 2015. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
The drama of a 2,500-mile migration as undertaken with the delicate wings of the monarch butterfly. Spare, clean text appropriate for preschoolers and early-elementary students provides factual descriptions of the vast distance traveled by this striking insect. Beginning as a tiny egg, one butterfly grows and then joins a throng that eventually turns the trees in Mexico a deep orange. Shingu evokes the same peace readers feel watching floating monarchs, giving them an aerial view of the annual migration, over oceans and cities, forests and streams. Set against monochrome scenes of blue, gray, and green, the iconic black-and-orange butterflies fly in formation over vast distances. Shingu captures the ephemeral quietness of the beautiful monarch in every illustration, whether close-ups or long views that silhouette them against an impossibly blue sky. The bright yellow book jacket, with five butterflies lifting upward on stained-glass wings, has the same strong and gentle quality. Young readers will learn to recognize this special creature, while older readers will marvel at the magnitude of her journey. The backmatter describes the species, offering astonishing facts: this tiny migrant weighs just over half a gram. Combining the precision of science with the grace of poetry and lovely illustrations, this book is a natural for budding etymologists. (Informational picture book. 4-8) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
