Terry and the Caterpillars

Terry and the Caterpillars

Millicent E. Selsam

pictures by Arnold Lobel 1962

Since this is the time of year for caterpillar hunting and butterflies, here's an early reader combining a story and nature facts illustrated by one of our favorites, Arnold Lobel.

Terry is my kind of girl, curious and loving insects!  Even better are her parents who encourage her to keep her caterpillars, finding out how to care for them from the library, calling the museum with a question, and even waking Terry up in the middle of the night so she can watch one emerge from its cocoon.

"I wonder," she said.  "I really wonder how this can happen."  

"Things can change when they grow," said her mother.  "You change when you grow, too."

This World of Ours

 I got to hold my sister's brand new baby and go to an antique mart with my mom (where I found this book!).  If that isn't a great weekend, I don't know what is!

I thought this would be more of a story book or musings about nature, but it's in fact a kind of science book teaching about weather and how soil is made and mountains and the air around us.  It's a thicker Little Golden Book with more pages, but all the better because that means more illustrations by Eloise Wilkin!

This World of Ours

Jane Werner Watson

pictures by Eloise Wilkin 1959

Bonkers about Beetles

 Beetles are some of my very favorite kinds of insects.  I was thrilled to get my hands on this Owen Davey's book all about them!  

Bonkers About Beetles

Owen Davey 2023

Other books by Owen Davey:

Obsessive About Octopuses

The Bug Club

There's still a part of me that wants to be an entomologist.  I've never lost my love of bugs since I was 10 years old.  Apparently Elise Gravel hasn't either!  Her adorable bug pictures accompany facts and interesting information about the most populous creatures on earth.

The Bug Club

Elise Gravel 2022

Check out her mushroom book too!

What's Inside a Caterpillar Cocoon?

 Another fabulously illustrated book by Rachel Ignotofsky.  We absolutely love her other science books.  This one is all about moths and butterflies, their differences, their life cycles, their defense mechanisms, etc.  All accompanied by thrilling artwork displaying the shapes and colors seen in nature (and a few friendly smiling faces as well!)

What's Inside a Caterpillar Cocoon?

Rachel Ignotofsky 2023

Time of Wonder

 Some children's books are just beautiful, like this one.  Robert McCloskey's muted illustrations take us to a northern island in the summer.  His story celebrates nature and the sea, the passing of days like the tide, and the coming of a hurricane.  In a melodic way, McCloskey invites us into the world of children exploring the nature around them and the wonder of it all.

   

Time of Wonder

Robert McCloskey

1957

"Out on the islands that poke their rocky shores above the waters of Penobscot Bay, you can watch the time of the world go by, from minute to minute, hour to hour, from day to day, season to season."

"Back from the shore the trees look like ghosts.  The forest is so quiet that you can hear an insect boring a tunnel deep inside a log.  And that other sound- not the beating of your heart, but the one like half a whisper- is the sound of growing ferns, pushing aside dead leaves, unrolling their fiddle-heads, slowly unfurling, slowly stretching."