The Miracle of Monarchs: Part Science, Part Magic
How does a creature smaller than a dollar bill, with a brain the size of a poppy seed, travel up to 3,000 miles to a place it’s never been before? How does it find the exact same trees its ancestors did, even though they’ve never met?
When I started researching HOME IS CALLING: THE JOURNEY OF THE MONARCH BUTTERFLY, the answers felt like part science, part magic. As I combed through the websites and social media feeds of organizations dedicated to helping and protecting monarchs, one thing that stood out to me were the expressions on kids’ faces when they encountered monarchs. It didn’t matter what country they were in—Canada, the United States, Mexico—the kids all wore the same expressions of wonder and delight. As I tried to understand the science behind the migration, I tried to hold on to that childlike sense of wonder at the miracle of it all.
Yet I also learned that monarch butterfly populations have declined by 80% since the 1990s. They face so many hazards—a lack of food sources, a changing climate, illegal tree harvests in their winter habitat—and yet they keep going, inspiring awe wherever they fly.
In HOME IS CALLING, Ellie and I tried to focus on the solutions as well as the threats these incredible creatures face. The traveling monarchs find refuge in a school garden, a stand of oak trees, and in a roadside ditch full of flowering weeds—all decisions someone made to plant appropriate flowers, leave trees standing, and not spray herbicides in public spaces. Like so many problems with enormous, unwieldy causes that are hard to unravel, ordinary people are taking it upon themselves to help monarchs, and we wanted to celebrate them as much as these incredible butterflies.
Since the book came out, family from around the country has been texting me pictures of monarchs visiting butterfly-friendly plants in their home gardens. I’ve met with volunteers building monarch habitats and giving out milkweed seeds. I’ve had teachers tell me about their efforts to turn schools into monarch way-stations, allowing kids to study both science and environmental restoration in action. I hope this book inspires people to help whatever way makes sense for them, and that together, we can preserve the miracle of the monarchs for future generations.
–Katherine Pryor, author of HOME IS CALLING
As the sun dawns in Canada, a flutter of monarch butterflies take flight, ready to begin their months-long journey to their ancestral home in Mexico. The migration will not be easy, but it is necessary for the next generation of monarchs to be born. Brought to life with illustrations as vivid as the monarch’s iconic orange and black hues, this story invites young readers to experience the monarch’s migration from the butterflies’ point of view as they search for food, huddle together through storms, and tirelessly fly south.
Parents and educators alike will find much to love about this poetically written book. The story touches on how climate change and deforestation are impacting monarchs, and kid-friendly back matter provides additional information about the butterflies, including their life cycle, anatomy, and migratory patterns, as well as several simple ways children can help monarch butterflies themselves.
