Señorita Mariposa
by Ben Gundersheimer
illustrated by Marcos Almada Rivero
Date: 2019
Publisher: Nancy Paulsen Books
Reading level: C
Book type: picture book non-fiction
Pages: 32
Format: e-book
Source: library
A captivating and child-friendly look at the extraordinary journey that monarch butterflies take each year from Canada to Mexico; with a text in both English and Spanish.
Rhyming text and lively illustrations showcase the epic trip taken by the monarch butterflies. At the end of each summer, these international travelers leave Canada to fly south to Mexico for the winter--and now readers can come along for the ride!
Over mountains capped with snow, to the deserts down below.
Children will be delighted to share in the fascinating journey of the monarchs and be introduced to the people and places they pass before they finally arrive in the forests that their ancestors called home.
(synopsis from Goodreads)
This rhyming picture book is almost like a song. It traces the journey of a monarch butterfly as she flies south from Canada to Mexico. The text is in English and Spanish; the verses are in English (with Spanish translations) and the "choruses" are in Spanish (with English translations). I don't speak Spanish, but I found it quite easy to read the Spanish text and figure out what many of the words meant. So this might be a good book for learning a bit of a new language. (Another book in a similar language vein is the delightful El Chupacabras by Adam Rubin.)
The illustrations here are pleasant to look at, and show the butterfly on various stages of her journey. Some of the landscapes (mountains, deserts, etc.) are lovely, and the facial expressions on some of the animals are kind of hilarious (they range from stunned to somewhat deranged). The butterfly also encounters a lot of human diversity as she makes her way south.
A little author's note at the end talks a bit about monarch butterflies and taught me some things I didn't know. The reader is also told how they can help these beautiful creatures.
Overall, I enjoyed this one. While the "song" part may be a bit clunky, the bilingual aspect kind of offsets that. This would be a nice book to have in a classroom as it teaches a bit of language as well as offers information about butterfly migration.
Quotable moment:
Premise: 4/5
Meter: 3/5
Writing: 3/5
Illustrations: 4/5
Originality: 4/5
Enjoyment: 4/5
Overall: 3.71 out of 5
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