Customer Reviews

Butterfly (Observing Nature)

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My daughter is crazy about butterflies and learning about them. I've always loved them too so we are having fun reading about them. We have read many library books about butterflies and this is one of the best. Beautifully illustrated and informative, the book has fourteen, two-page sections plus a glossary and index. An alluring feature that should be in every book to test/improve reading comprehension is a review called "Life of a Butterfly" that uses a picture along with a word or group of words for children to remember the main point of each section they read. If they don't know the answer, they can go back to the appropriate section to find out.

Here are the contents along with a brief summary of each section:
1 WHAT IS A BUTTERFLY? (Butterflies are insects. The wings have patterns made of colored scales the size of dust.)

2 BUTTERFLY OR MOTH? (Butterflies fly during day, have long thin feelers, are brightly-colored and close their wings when resting. Most moths fly at night, have hairlike or feathery feelers, thicker hairy bodies, and cannot close their wings.)

3 HIBERNATION (Some butterflies sleep during the winter in a safe place for up to six months. Other butterflies hibernate in a shell-like chrysalis, and some fly to warmer areas.)

4 MATING (Butterflies feed on nectar of flowers. When you see them, you know spring is here at last. After a few weeks, they are ready to mate.)

5 THE EGGS (Laid on underside of leaves or are scattered as they fly, hundreds are laid and eggs may hatch in a few days.)

6 THE EGGS HATCH (The caterpillars eat their way out of the tops of their eggs. They have eight pairs of legs, no wings, and large jaws for eating leaves.)

7 GROWING UP (Caterpillars grow quickly so they have to shed their old skin which is called molting. When the caterpillar sheds its skin for the last time it becomes a pupa enclosed in a chrysalis.)

8 THE CHRYSALIS (Hangs upside down to a plant. Metamorphosis occurs.)

9 A NEW BUTTERFLY (The chrysalis opens in about two weeks. The butterfly emerges and crawls up onto the empty chrysalis to dry. After one hour the wings dry and the butterfly is ready to fly for the first time.)

10 FEEDING (Butterflies have a special long tongue [probiscus] for sucking up nectar.)

11 ESCAPING FROM DANGER (Butterflies are often eaten by birds. The peacock butterfly has patterns on its wings that look like eyes. They eye patterns look like the eyes of an owl which frightens away birds. The underside of the butterfly's wings are dark which looks like a dead leaf which are good for hiding on tree bark.)

12 HELPING BUTTERFLIES (You can help butterflies by growing plenty of flowering plants in your yard they can feed on. [Plant milkweed, butterflies plant of choice to lay their eggs on.] )

13 Other Butterflies and their Caterpillars
14 Life of a Butterfly
15 Glossary and Index

Soar!