For those interested in butterfly gardening and caterpillars, here are a few more children’s books to consider.
2015 Edit: For our most complete and up-to-date list of butterfly books for kids, visit Science Books for Kids website.
Nonfiction
Nic Bishop Butterflies and Moths by Nic Bishop just came out and it is fabulous!
The butterfly book : a kid’s guide to attracting, raising, and keeping butterflies by Kersten Hamilton.
This butterfly book for older children is full of scientific information and suggestions for activities, such as making a butterfly net. It starts out with a “getting to know†section that covers much of the complex vocabulary children will need to read this and other books about butterflies. Then the author covers many aspects of raising and keeping butterflies, as well as butterfly behavior and biology. A butterfly guide on the edges of each page has extensive photographs and accurate illustrations of common butterflies, and includes a map of where they are found. The resource guide and “glossarized index†at the end help children find out more. If you are interested in raising butterflies or butterfly gardening, this book is an excellent resource.
It’s a butterfly’s life by Irene Kelly.
This nonfiction book has many lovely illustrations. If you are looking for a book for a child to read, be aware that the font looks like hand lettering and the sentences wave up and down across the page, almost like the pattern of a butterfly flying. This looks lovely, but may be hard for a beginning reader to read. It has many interesting facts, and covers the butterfly life cycle in detail.
Creepy, crawly caterpillars by Margery Facklam and illustrated by Paul Facklam.
All the terms used throughout the book are defined in the text in the first two pages. The second page of this book has an absolutely amazing illustration of a caterpillar with all its parts labeled clearly and accurately. The rest of the book is two-page spreads of specific common and interesting caterpillars, for example the woolly bear and the cecropia moth caterpillar. Most of the caterpillars chosen are actually moth caterpillars, rather than butterfly caterpillars, but it is still fascinating to learn about them. This book has a glossary.
Face to face with caterpillars by Darlyne A. Murawski.
The author is a photographer who talks about how she got some of her stunning photographs next to the actual results. She starts out with the story of a caterpillar that eats ants and how she photographed the caterpillar through glass. This and some other parts of the book feels as if the photographs drove the text, rather than vice versa. There is a great deal of information on caterpillars, however, to accompany the wonderful, one-of-a-kind photographs. The end contains a glossary: a “find out more†section with articles, books and websites; an index to help children search the text; and a sidebar of research and photographic notes.
Fiction
The girl who loved caterpillars : a twelfth-century tale from Japan adapted by Jean Merrill and illustrated by Floyd Cooper.
It is hard not to love a book that is so beautifully written and illustrated. The overall tale is of a lovely young Japanese girl who defies the traditions of her time. She prefers caterpillars and centipedes to butterflies, and collects and raises them. This story is incredibly complex, and even makes adults who read it think deeply about it. One issue is the fact that the story is probably only the first chapter of a much longer tale, but the rest has been lost. Some people may wonder why the author didn’t construct her own ending. Rather than detracting from the book however, for me it only made it more interesting.
There are more butterfly book reviews at the end of the white-lined sphinx moth post.
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