Traveling Butterflies

K-Gr 2—A monarch caterpillar wakes inside a tiny egg in a "country up north." Munching on milkweed, she grows, transforms into a butterfly with wings "like stained glass," and takes off on the southward wind. Employing sparse but expressive text, Shingu follows a group of monarchs making their way over a waterfall and through a big city and a village before arriving in the southern forest to mate and begin the return journey. A successful sculptor and installation artist with a deep interest in the natural world, Shingu provides lush, bold illustrations; the butterflies' wing markings stand out brilliantly against gray, vivid green, and summer sky blue backgrounds. A portrayal of seven monarchs resting under shady leaves in a rainstorm evokes the landscape settings of 19th-century woodblock artists. On another page, eight butterflies are rendered in a range of sizes according to perspective; beneath them simple strokes in a range of blues suggest a lake in summer, at once dynamic and languorous. One error mars the work. On one spread, the caterpillar "wraps a cocoon around herself," rather than a chrysalis; however, cocoons are produced by moths. The volume concludes with a section called "More About Monarch Butterflies," which describes the monarch's astonishing migration from Canada to Mexico.