The Little Green Pen

School Bells and Butterfly Wings, Part II: Good Reads

Check out the following books to learn more about butterflies and starting a butterfly garden:

The Butterfly Book: a kid's guide to attracting, raising, and keeping butterflies, by Kersten Hamilton. Packed with facts about butterflies! Learn about butterfly life stages, body structures, and habits, as well as the best plants to add to a garden to attract these winged jewels. As a bonus, the book includes a field guide for 20 common North American butterflies.

A Place for Butterflies, by Melissa Stewart. From the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail to the Oregon Silverspot, this picture book highlights twelve North American butterflies and their habitats. With an emphasis on conservation, the author suggest specific actions people can take to help these insects “live and grow.” Richly detailed paintings show close-up portraits of each butterfly against their specific habitats. A great book to introduce children to the concept of habitat protection.

Velma Gratch and the Way Cool Butterfly, by Alan Madison. With two “practically perfect” older sisters, Velma can’t help but feel a bit overshadowed. When she starts first grade, Velma struggles to find a way to become as memorable as her sisters. At first she misbehaves, but then she becomes fascinated with butterflies in science class. Velma pours over library books to learn fabulous facts about these way cool insects. A trip to the butterfly conservation gives Velma the chance to prove she is way cool too. Factual information is woven into this delightful story, making it a nice companion to a unit on butterflies.

Visit the Good Green Read page of this blog for more books on butterflies!