From Publishers Weekly
Coville's (Into the Land of the Unicorns) sometimes moving but ultimately puzzling picture book is constructed a bit like a film drama that rolls a documentary-style addendum at the end. One afternoon, a flock of migrating monarch butterflies surrounds 11-year-old John. The green field where the flock had stopped on its path south has been bulldozed for a development. They beg John ("not in words but quite clearly nevertheless") to show them the way to a new resting place, and they transform him into a butterfly ("brushing him with their wings, dropping their tiny scales on... his two legs, four legs, six legs") so that he can lead them there. Both the experience of flying and the privilege of saving the monarchs elate the boy. Clapp's (The Stone Fey) uncannily lifelike watercolors feature close-ups of butterflies and aerial shots. The story's second section follows "John Farrington" as he grows up and becomes an activist who helps pass legislation to preserve monarch habitats "The Butterfly Road" bill. Of course, there is no such activist, and no such legislation, either. In the end, Farrington is surrounded by another flock of his beloved monarchs, which, for one last time, transform his aged body into a butterfly's. The shifts between fantasy and accurate details give the story sophisticated, screenplay-style impact; whether younger readers will understand the blurred boundaries between fiction and fact is less clear. Ages 6-up.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
Kindergarten-Grade 4-This sentimental tale was originally published in a slightly different form in Disney's Big Time (May, 1995). A flock of monarchs finds an ally in 11-year-old John Farrington as he helps them locate the diminishing green spaces along their migratory path. They cluster around his body and turn him into a butterfly so that he can lead them to places with grass and trees in his part of the world. Before he turns 17, the butterflies visit each spring and he continues to assist them. As an adult, he becomes a lepidopterist and persuades Congress to pass "The Butterfly Road" bill to set aside migratory resting places for the monarchs. Finally, when he is aged and wheelchair-bound, the butterflies return to transform John for the last time. (An author's note explains that while the character is fictional, the threat to the monarchs and their habitats is real.) The narrative adopts a brisk, documentary tone, and Clapp's watercolor illustrations capably deal with the text, but little is conveyed overall of the awe or magic the story's events would imply.
Kathie Meizner, Montgomery County Public Libraries, Chevy Chase, MDCopyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
