A Children's Guide to Arctic Butterflies

by Mia Pelletier, Danny Christopher (Illustrations)

About fifty species of butterflies live in the North American Arctic. Where most Arctic animals have warm, woolly coats or thick layers of blubber, butterflies have only their fluttering, delicate wings. The hardy butterflies that live in the Arctic have had to find clever ways to keep themselves warm in cool summers and survive icy cold winters. In A Children’s Guide to Arctic Butterflies, young readers learn about twelve of the butterfly species that call the Arctic home and how they survive from one summer to the next.
With a simple layout and easy-to-follow headings for each butterfly, this beautiful book is filled with fun, useful facts, including introductory material about the life cycle and anatomy of butterflies and how they begin life as caterpillars.
Step inside and journey North—you may even spot a familiar fluttering friend!

Genres: Middle Grade, Nonfiction, Nature

40 pages, Hardcover

Published August 6, 2019

Reviews

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had never really thought about butterflies being able to live in the Arctic because I thought their fragile wings and need for nectar would not bode well for life in a challenging climate. But as this beautifully illustrated book points out, there are actually 50 different types of butterflies that might be found in the Arctic. It just takes careful observation and knowing what to look for as well as where to look. Not only does the book describe the parts of a butterfly and its life cycle, but it distinguishes between butterflies and moths and tells how these creatures manage to survive during the winter. Most of the book consists of full-page illustrations of the various butterflies on the right-hand page with details about each one provided on the left-hand side. Almost like a colorful nature artist's sketchbook, the images show the butterflies in their natural habitat, and the text describes each one, listing its location, wingspan, flying patterns, what the caterpillar looks like, ow it deals with winter, and then, an additional "Fluttering Fact" that offers an interesting fact about butterflies in general. While most of us may never see the butterflies featured in this book, it was easy to appreciate their uniqueness and their stamina, often surviving against harsh conditions. The book is organized in an easy-to-follow fashion, and it will surely interest youngsters who enjoy nature. Although there are other butterflies that might have been featured, this one highlights only 12 of them.

[Theediscerning · Rating 4 out of 5]

A perfectly fine book if you happen to need it, but clearly much less use outside the area concerned. That said, the facts about butterfly life, anatomy and nature are universal, so it's not completely a waste for anyone. The book does just what it should – itemise a few key species of the more common Arctic butterflies for the young spotter, showing us size, upper side and under side colouring, how they fly, what the caterpillar looks like and eats, their range, and how they over-winter. Full-page illustrations of very decent quality add to things, and we get a good grounding in being a young lepidopterist. All regions of the world deserve a book like this – even if many of them would need to be much broader in scope. A strong four stars.

[Barbra · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful addition to school classroom and library. Students studying the Arctic and Life Cycles will learn about these amazing butterflies who live in the tundra.

[Steve S · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not many examples, but good info on each. Also related to Canadian arctic, not US, so not too helpful for Alaska.

[Jennifer]

A gorgeously illustrated book filled with interesting facts about the butterflies of the North.