Good Night, Sweet Butterflies

by Dawn Bentley, Heather Cahoon (Illustrator), Melanie Gerth (Draft Writer)

Goodnight, Sweet Butterflies makes bedtime a fun, soothing experience for little sleepyheads. They will love the rhyming story -- and the glittery butterflies teach colors while easing children into dreamland. It's the perfect way to say good night, every night!

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Counting, Storytime, Fiction, Teaching, Spanish Literature

14 pages, Board Book

First published April 24, 2003

Reviews

[Meredith]

Butterflies go to sleep one by one, teaching colors.

This board book has raised plastic butterflies as an interactive sensory element. It is very similar to Ten Little Ladybugs.

[Allie Kelley]

This is a cute goodnight story for kids. The butterflies on the cover slowly come off after each page. Each butterfly is a color and every time you flip a page the color of the butterfly fits the color of the page. Small glittery butterflies are fun to look at and touch for a younger audience.

[Mely]

adorable little counting book. Beautiful illustrations with colorful glittery butterflies

[BiblioBeruthiel]

nicely tactile

[Rebecca Caufman]

A book about counting, colors, and butterflies.

[Carolyn]

Beautiful tactical butterflies.
Prose is so-so.

[Kelly Chester]

What a great book

[Fay and Luna]

Good.

[Lucy Sandeen]

this book scared me so much bc the colors were so intense

[Kelly Anderson]

A beautifully colorful description of nature in springtime. The glittery butterflies add an extra fun sensory experience.

[Erin]

We love the rhythm and rhyme of this simple story, and my sons love the three-dimensional, glittery butterflies. Page by page, the butterflies "disappear" as they go to sleep. Each page is beautifully illustrated in hues of a particular color, coordinating with the butterfly that is "going to sleep" next. It's a fun and sweet bedtime story.

This was one of my oldest son's first favorites at around 8 months old, and I partly credit this book with him learning all his colors by the time he was 16 months old! My younger son (now 17 months old) wasn't interested in books at all until he was almost a year old, and this is the book that really got him excited about books. It is still his favorite!

[Lucy Hernandez]

Amazing book. Is is very interesting how children see how butterflies disappear with the turn of a page. It is magical and delightful to go through this beautiful book with very glittering and cheerful creatures. Very intense color in all the illustrations. Kids just loved it.
Along the reading, children can recognize some other animals., and learn how to count 1 to 10 too.

Extension:
Nice project for Spring and Summer. Provide the children with bug catchers and invite them to go outside, look for butterflies and chase them. Probably they are not getting any, but for sure they are going to have so much fun. Talk to them about how a caterpillar turns in a wonderful butterfly.

[Lindsay]

I used the Spanish version of this board book, "Buenas Noches, Maripositas," as part of a butterfly-themed program for both Spanish and bilingual story time. The book is housed under our participation books in our non-ciculating story time collection. This book helps children learn/reinforce their color identification and builds/reinforces their counting ability. The book starts with nine butterflies, and on each subsequent page, there is one less butterfly. The children can also help identify the other animals associated with each color (pigs on the pink page; dragonfly on the purple page; fox on the orange page, etc.).

[Kate]

I love the concept. A different color butterfly on each page surrounded by nature emphasizing that color. As you turn the page, the butterflies disappear one by one.

However, it really annoys me that for pink the author chose "pink possums" though opossums are grey and for red "red robins" though generally robins are grey with orange chests; I've never seen a robin with red. Why not pink clouds or a pink flamingo? There are lots of red fruit like cherries and apples or red birds like cardinals and tanagers, even a red headed woodpecker has true red.

So, I like it, but I get annoyed every time I read those two pages that I can't get beyond 3 stars. My son (3yrs) likes it.

[Amanda]

This one has 9 sparkly butterfly pieces which poke through to the cover which I thought was fun enough that my son would like it. Each page shows a different color landscape where the butterfly of that color chooses to sleep. While the story isn't very consistent, it's a nice picture book and I think will even satisfy his recent number-lust if I have him count the butterflies as they one by one are subtracted from the group. Should appeal to most toddlers, I would think.

[Lamar Sanders]

Setting: Field
This book is a nap time/bedtime picture book that teaches infants and toddlers their colors and a few animals. The illustrations are very vibrant and eye catching. There are puffy butterflies featured on each page that provide tactile stimulation to engage the children. The story rhymes and has a very soothing flow to it. I would recommend this book for the above purposes with the target age group. The even managed to put me to sleep.... in a good way!

[Terry]

The colorful, detailed illustrations are wonderful, as is the opportunity to count down the butterflies, one by one, until they have all gone off to sleep. Great picture book read aloud any time of day.

[Brendan]

Great for reading to very young children and great for older children learning how to read. Perfect for reading just before bed. The illustrations are bright and colorful and the story is well paced and brief. Kids learn about animals, colors, counting, and even textures as they can touch the butterfly attached to each page.

[Blakeley Norris]

This is a good story to read at bedtime. It has five little three-dimensional butterflys and as you turn the page one disappears,so you could work in a math lesson and count the butterflys for the younger children. This book also has a color scheme on each page adn students could talk about that color and what other objects or animals are that color.

[Katelynne]

Apparently the copy I have was recalled because the tactile portions can be popped out. Assuming that was fixed, I love how tactile and pretty this book is. Because of the issue, I use it for read-alouds to groups where I am the one controlling the book.

This is a great, gentle story for teaching colors and animals. The images are so vibrant and fun!

[Angela]

This is a beautiful book filled with bright, bold colors. I like that the words are all at the bottom of the pages so they don't distract from the pictures. This book is going to be a nice addition to our bedtime routine.

[Amanda Kolar]

Bentley (2003) tells a story about butterflies going to sleep in different places with different color things all around them. I would use this in my classroom. It would help me teach my students to different colors and what color different items are.

[Michelle Couey]

I love reading this one to my little ones, has the beautiful art work and glowing colors...I think I like it more than the babies, they love to match colors with the 3-dimensional butterflies that seem like they are flying away because one disappears each page.

[Little Miss and the Legomeister]

I like this one. I like the sparkly colored butterflies that peek through holes in the book, and the vibrant color-themed pages. They're very sweet and cute, but whimsical enough to make it tolerable.

[Chelsea]

This is such a beautiful book artistically! It is a children's book that I own that I recommend to anyone who loves a beautifully illustrated books. The story is very simple, for very small children, as a nighttime story.

[Kristie]

Short, rhyming text that focuses on colors. 10 sparkly butterflies are included and fun for children to count.

[Amy]

This is a gorgeous book. My son loved it when he was a toddler. Perfect for spring!

[Katie]

3-D, glittery, colorful butterflies adorn the cover...lovely:)

[Joy]

My daughter's favorite bedtime book right now. Cute, sing-song text along with sparkly butterflies and colorful pictures make this a pleasure to re-read.

[Terelyn]

My kids loved pointing to the different creatures, and learning colors! We made up a melody to sing this as a lullaby.