I've been enchanted with birds ever since I observed my parents whistling and mocking the mockingbirds who mocked them back. I've been a gardener forever, cursing those creepy caterpillers who devoured this and that. In the past few years I've taken a greater interest in butterflies, and lo what do I discover...the creepy caterpillers turn into the beautiful butterflies if the birds don't eat them first. I knew that of course because like lots of kids, I too brought home the cocoon found on some branch and kept it in a glass jar with holes punched in the top until it did not "hatch." Yes, I said did NOT. I never had any success with this effort so I forgot about caterpillers and cocoons--until I opened STOKES BUTTERFLY BOOK and there are those darn cocoons again.This is a wonderful book for adolescent children who can read big words and like big type or older people with vision problems. The pictures are colorful and closeup and the type large enough that my aunt can see it under her "reading" machine" (she has diabetes and is sight impaired).
The book is filled with all sorts of interesting information about the behaviour of butterfiles (basking in the sun to warm up their wings, puddling to suck up nutients; courting and laying eggs --surprise there are two sexes, just like the birds). There are also lots of photos of their predecessors--the caterpillers who require a daily ration of greens to grow up into beautiful bugs.
Now I must admit it is about time that I realized that every orange and black butterfly I see is NOT a Monarch, but goodness there are so MANY orange and black butterfiles will I ever be able to tell them apart? Some are Crescents and Checkerspots (in my neck of the woods which is the East Coast) and there are Admirals. Goodness--Monarchs, Admirals, Viceroys--I had no idea there was an aristocracy of butterflies.
I intend to use this book with my granddaughters who love to walk in grandma's garden and learn the names of plants and bugs and birds. Now we'll learn the names of caterpillers and their reincarnations who form an intermediate link in the food chain.
