This is the best book I've seen about butterflies for young readers! The illustrations are vibrant and engaging and though there is little text, it is informative and to the point. The text works well with the illustrations and will inform young readers while not losing their attention. I highly recommend for pre-school up through grade 4.

A beautiful nonfiction title that deserves to be in many young classrooms. This is a great resource for teachers and parents about this topic.

This is an odd little book. It is supposed to introduce children to butterflies, and it does with some gorgeous pictures, but the writing is a little bit too much in the vernacular, very conversationally, which makes the voice a little off.

If you are trying instruct, don't say, oh, all butterflies have to have dazzling colors and then say, oh, no they don't.

The pictures, though, the pictures sort of make up for the sloppy writing. Just look at these pictures.

<img src="https://g2comm.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Screen-Shot-2019-04-11-at-10.52.01-PM.png" alt="How to be a butterfly" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-5077" />

I get that the author is trying to be playful, and I commend her for doing so, but when you are trying to teach, then don't try to mess with the truth.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

How to Be a Butterfly is an informative yet completely engaging book about the butterfly species. The illustrations are gorgeously done and give so many important details into the species as well as detailing all the unique characteristics.

This book gives you information about the butterfly lifecycles and also shares about so many butterflies species I had never even heard of previously. Our grade school aged children devoured this book and it is definitely one we will be adding to our home library.

A big thank you to Quarto Publishing and NetGalley for a copy of this ebook in exchange for an honest review.

It turns out there are some characteristics that are quite necessary to be a butterfly, as the cute and conversational How to Be a Butterfly details -- but within those key characteristics, butterflies can be all kinds of things -- big, small, plain, flashy, with wings that have smooth or wiggly edges, etc.

This book celebrates the diversity of butterflies, accompanied by many lovely illustrations of their colors and their actions, from flying and drinking nectar, to their unique life cycle.

(Thanks to NetGalley for the review copy.)

How to Be a Butterfly
words by Laura Knowles
pictures by Catell Ronca

This lovely book is one I can see parents or older siblings reading to younger children. The illustrations are beautiful detailing a wide number of butterflies that include their scientific names as well. The butterfly parts are shown as is the life cycle of the butterfly. This is a book I can see buying for my granddaughter or as a gift to give to any child.

Thank you to NetGalley and Quarto Publishing Group for the ARC – This is my honest review.

4.5 Stars

How to Be a Butterfly is pretty to look at, and it does offer a basic explanation of what makes a butterfly a butterfly. However, I found the text self-contradictory at times, and it didn't really need to be. Multiple times, a statement will be made, only to have that statement negated a page later. For example, the book will state that to be a butterfly, you have to be big... but then it says you could also be small. This happens a few times, and I don't like it. Just present the facts without confusing readers!

There are many, many types of butterflies illustrated on the pages, and they're all labelled with their Latin names. The rest of the text is really sparse. We learn a little bit about the anatomy of butterflies and their life cycle, but for a non-fiction picture book, it's kind of light on facts. It's mainly a book of illustrations (so it's a good thing those are done well).

I think I expected a little more from this after reading the wonderfully informative We Build Our Homes from the same author. That book had lots of text and tons of interesting information. This book, on the other hand, is pretty to look at, but might not satisfy young lepidopterists' thirst for knowledge.

5★
“To be a butterfly, you must be a master of disguise.”

Bring on the butterflies! This is one of the prettiest books around, and you know what? I think it might be just the thing to appeal to those kids who are so besotted with dinosaurs. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but wouldn’t it be great to channel all that enthusiasm for showing off fancy names into learning about some necessary little creatures who aren’t extinct . . . yet?

A world without butterflies and other insects would mean the end of life as we know it.

This has the most gorgeous illustrations that would make wonderful pieces of art in their own right. Each butterfly is carefully and artistically labelled with its proper name (I assume!), so the kids can memorise and astound us to their hearts’ content.

They learn the names of body parts, how they work, how butterflies suck nectar, disguise themselves, lay eggs, hatch into larvae, turn into members of The Very Hungry Caterpillar family (sorry, I couldn’t resist a nod to everyone’s favourite first book!), form a chrysalis, and emerge as butterflies.

The colours are irresistible for both the adults and caterpillars. There is a nod to moths, as well. Butterflies have long, smooth antennae with little clubs on the end for smelling and for balance. Moths have fuzzy antennae. Maybe you know that, but I learned something today.

I hope this stirs up a lot of interest in today’s kids. They have plenty of tools to research this in detail as they get older. I mean, look at me. I looked up the difference between a chrysalis and a cocoon. You can too, if you’re not sure. :)

Many thanks to Quarto Publishing and #NetGalley for a preview of #HowToBeAButterfly, to be published 16 April 2019

Here are just a few of the colourful pages to tempt you into being a butterfly! There are many more pages, of course. Sorry my screenshots aren't as clear as the real thing and probably aren't visible on the Goodreads apps. They aren't visible on NetGalley either, but these are the captions:


1. These are your body parts.

2. You will need bright, bold colors.

3. Or you can have soft colours, too.

4. Here's where you lay your eggs. (Remember, YOU are learning to be the butterfly.)

5. You will soon join the ranks of the very hungry caterpillars.

6. The chrysalis will protect your transformation.

7. You must go to bed at night, because the moths come out! (Note their fuzzy antennae.)

8. There are twenty thousand ways to be a butterfly!

9. So off you go in your new body!

10. The life cycle of the butterfly

This is a beautiful book and leads itself to be read and devoured page by page. The stunning illustrations show detail and research into the thousands of butterfly species, and it is so thoughtfully arranged.

I enjoyed the text, as it was easy to read and understand and almost spoken as though the reader wants to become a butterfly. Perfect for younger readers wanting to learn more about these beautiful creatures.

We all know the story of the butterfly life cycle and it is one that schools consistently teach, year after year. This would make an excellent class text to study, and to learn the names and details of some of the butterflies. There are a huge number that I hadn't heard of and it was lovely to see what they would look like.

Each butterfly also has its own unique caterpillar and pupa stage and it is nature's wonder how it happens so perfectly.

A gorgeous book and I will be recommending to all primary schools I work with to add colour, style and new ways of learning about butterflies!