Joan Butterfly and Friends

Passages to the Northwest
May 16, 2022
The Three Graces
May 23, 2022
Passages to the Northwest
May 16, 2022
The Three Graces
May 23, 2022

Joan Butterfly and Friends

Joan Creates a Community

Written and illustrated by Christine Glare

This is the first book in a series of stories about the exciting adventures of Joan Butterfly and her friends.

Here is Joan Butterfly, a most marvellous friend.
Today she is busy, from beginning to end.
Reliable and creative is our sweet Joan.
She happily completes her jobs on her own.

Why is Joan covered in rose pollen, and so glad?
She has a very good reason, it's ironclad!
Read on inside and you'll be amazed to learn,
How Joan cleverly does each friend a good turn.

Available in Paperback (ISBN: 9781922603999) through the following booksellers:

Amazon

Angus & Robertson Barnes & Noble

Fishpond Booktopia


Reviews


This is a children's book (probably best for ages 3-8) with gorgeous drawings as illustrations. The story itself is fun and whimsical, while also touching on garden life and friendship/community. The anthropomorphic butterfly demonstrates a sense of community in enjoying helping out her garden friends with their chores/activities while they're away, thus demonstrating to young readers the value in helping each other and what it means to be part of a community.

Many of the chores demonstrate actual garden critters' jobs (such as ladybirds keeping aphids off roses, and bees pollinating flowers), which is a fun way to introduce young readers to such concepts.

The story is written in rhyming prose (or, in a handful of cases, near-rhymes) which adds a musical lilt when reading the story to little ones.

It's comprised of 20 pages of rhymes (each with its own picture), so younger readers - say age 3 - may need a few sittings get through the whole thing depending on their attention span, but children at more like age 8 should enjoy the story in one go.

As a teacher I would love to read this with any of my preschool through grade 2 classes.

And there's endless time and delight wanted for perusing the drawings, which are - in my opinion - the highlight of this beautiful book.

Nicole Barber, Elementary School Teacher, Seattle, Washington State.