The rabbit, the mouse, the crow, the turtle, and the bat! (Picture book/nonfiction.Eat an apple (bright right hand to mouth)įingerplay: “Way Up High In the Apple Tree”ĭown came the apples, and mmmm, they were good! In order to serve the rhyme, Ehlert repeatedly has her butterflies 'eat' nectar, even though, as explained in the appendix, they actually drink it-but this still makes a riveting introduction to the science and (visually at least) the poetry of these splendidly attired insects.

(But don't remove those sunglasses.) Unfortunately, the main text-a singsong jingle-doesn't measure up to the eye-popping art. Finished with the story, fanciers will find two pages on identification, more detailed descriptive information, and advice about starting a butterfly garden.

There, readers will need sunglasses to view the extravagantly hued varieties of butterfly-attracting flowers.

The next set includes long, narrow pages that follow the flight to the flower garden. Several shorter split pages, lining up with the stems and flowers on the standard-sized pages add extra measures of suspense and surprise as the author tracks her subjects' physical changes. With each spread opening to an explosion of bright, gorgeous color, Ehlert ( Market Day, 2000, etc.) takes a close-up look at the life stages of four butterflies, all of which are seen amidst a profusion of the plant life on which they subsist. Annie and her family are all black.Ī solid, small step for diversifying STEM stories. Backmatter provides further reading suggestions and information about the moon and four women astronauts, one of whom is Jemison. It’s unclear if Annie imagines this scene or if it’s her future-self exploring Mars, but either scenario fits the aspirational story. Annie jumps off a chair to “BLAST OFF” in a small illustration superimposed on a larger picture depicting her floating in space with a reddish ground below. There’s a celebratory mood at the culminating presentation, where Annie says she wants to “soar high through the air” like her basketball-playing mother, “explore faraway places” like her hiker dad, and “be brave and bold” like her baker grandmother (this feels forced, but oven mitts are part of her astronaut costume) so “the whole world will hear my exciting stories” like her reporter grandfather. Family members make guesses about her ambitions that are tied to their own passions, although her brother watches as she completes her costume in a bedroom with a Mae Jemison poster, starry décor, and a telescope. Readers will figure it out, however, through the title and clues Tadgell incorporates into the illustrations. As career day approaches, Annie wants to keep her job choice secret until her family sees her presentation at school.

The Apple Pie Tree by Zoe Hall