★"[T]houghtful. . . colorful. . . detailed. . . This beautiful picture book unites fiction with facts while quietly promoting environmental activism."
—Booklist, starred review
In this moving story of community conservation, a girl finds a home in a new place and a way to help other small travelers.
This book is about the real change children can make in conservation and advocacy—in this case, focusing on beautiful monarch butterflies.
• From Deborah Hopkinson and Meilo So, the acclaimed team behind Follow the Moon Home
• An empowering, classroom-ready read
• The protagonist is a girl whose family has recently immigrated to the United States.
I know what to look for: large black-and-orange wings with a border of small white specks, flitting from flower to flower, sipping nectar. But though I looked hard, I couldn't find even one. I wondered if monarch butterflies belonged here. I wondered if I did, too.
Butterflies Belong Here is proof that even the smallest of us are capable of amazing transformations.
• Equal parts educational and heartwarming, this makes a great gift for parents and grandparents, as well as librarians, science teachers, and educators.
• Those interested in beautiful butterflies and everyday activism will find this lovely book both motivating and inspiring.
• Perfect for children ages 5 to 8 years old
• Add it to the shelf with books like Thank You, Earth: A Love Letter to Our Planet by April Pulley Sayre, The Honeybee by Kirsten Hall, and Greta and the Giants: Inspired by Greta Thunberg's Stand to Save the World by Zoë Tucker
★"[T]houghtful. . . colorful. . . detailed. . . This beautiful picture book unites fiction with facts while quietly promoting environmental activism."
—Booklist, starred review
"[T]he premise, of an immigrant girl who relates both to an endangered butterfly's journey to its new home and to a shy caterpillar's shedding of its skin, is smart. After learning English via books about butterflies, our narrator initiates the building of a monarch way station (a guide for which is included). So's gorgeous illustrations pit boldly defined monarchs against a feathery watercolor world."
—The New York Times
"[In Butterflies Belong Here] creative illustrations parallel the shifts in tone, with scientific information presented as if on the pages of a textbook, in contrast to glowing illustrations of an idyllic neighborhood filled with people, colorful buildings, and a community garden. . . . Readers inspired by the [main character’s] activism can find additional resources on monarchs and environmental activism in the book’s closing pages."
—Horn Book Magazine
"Following an earlier, similarly structured collaboration by this team (Follow the Moon Home) about a child gaining self-assurance while working on an environmental project, Hopkinson and So introduce a brown-skinned girl whose confidence grows as she organizes her class to start a milkweed garden for migrating monarchs. . . . So’s delicate mixed-media drawings capture the girl’s classmates and portrays the protagonist as she journeys from lonely newcomer to poised leader."
—Publishers Weekly