Monarch and Mourning Cloak

Melissa Stewart is the award-winning author of more than 150 science books for children, including the celebrated Meet the Mini Mammals, illustrated by Brian Lies, and Can an Aardvark Bark? and Fourteen Monkeys: A Rain Forest Rhyme, both illustrated by Steve Jenkins. After earning a bachelor’s degree in biology from Union College and a master’s degree in science journalism from New York University, Melissa worked as a children’s book editor for nine years before becoming a full-time writer. While gathering information for her books, she has explored tropical rain forests in Costa Rica, gone on safari in East Africa, and swum with sea lions in the Galapagos Islands. She lives in Acton, Massachusetts.Sarah S. Brannen is an award-winning author and illustrator of more than twenty books for children. Her authored works include the groundbreaking Uncle Bobby’s Wedding, illustrated by Lucia Soto, and her illustrated works include Melissa Stewart’s Sibert Honor book Summertime Sleepers. Sarah lives in Massachusetts.

In the visual treat and researcher’s delight Monarch and Mourning Cloak: A Butterfly Journal, the duo [author Melissa Stewart and illustrator Sarah S. Brannen] shares with readers the lifecycles, habitats, food sources and activities of two species of butterflies as they flutter through the seasons and bring enchantment into the world. Budding naturalists will revel in the wealth of information presented in a format resembling a diary made of collage featuring engaging poems and interesting observations; detailed, colorful drawings alongside rough pencil sketches; and illustrations that look like taped-on bits of paper and pressed flowers. . . . Monarch and Mourning Cloak is perfect for home, library and classroom, and sure to inspire conservationists, artists and writers of all ages. The picture book even encourages readers to record their own real-life observations. There’s “no right or wrong way to keep a journal,” Stewart says. Adds Brannen, we need only “go outside and look.”