Butterflies

by Karen Shapiro

Published 1 May 2002
This rhyming easy-to-read non-fiction science reader covers a favorite nature subject taught in the early childhood curriculum -- the metamorphosis of a caterpillar to a butterfly.

"Butterflies start as tiny eggs. Out come caterpillars with many legs...."

With catchy rhyming text, author Karen Shapiro gives readers a very simple lesson in the process of metamorphosis from caterpillar to butterfly. The spare text, paired with illustrator Jean Cassels' vivid realistic art, follows the fascinating process step-by-step. Readers see the caterpillar being born, eating, growing, shedding skin, gradually changing form inside a chrysalis, then emerging as a beautiful butterfly. The last page of the book catalogs the many different kinds of butterflies that appear inside, each of them identified with their correct names.