Butterfly Tree

K-Gr 3—A child recollects spotting and following, with her mother and her dog, an orange cloud down the beach and into the woods. They come upon a tree covered in orange leaves that, when disturbed, becomes a horde of fluttering monarch butterflies. These small creatures land in their hair and on their noses, and then settle onto the branches again to fan their wings and rest before continuing their long migration to Mexico. It's a moment in time that Jilly instinctively knows she will remember for the rest of her life. ("We're in no hurry now./When you're making a memory,/you want it to last as long as possible.") Wu's double-page impressionist pastel drawings in smudged tones of vivid orange, yellow green, blue, and deep brown echo the dreamlike quality of the narrative. ("Our footsteps sound too loud./I feel like I should tiptoe./I look so hard I think my eyes will pop.") The orange cloud of butterflies appears as a large spaceship in a commonplace beach scene, showing the girl and the dog playing a game of "fetch the stick." An author's note on the habits of migrating monarchs is appended, along with a short list of books and websites on the topic.—Susan Scheps, Shaker Heights Public Library, OH