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Wings of Light: The Migration of the Yellow Butterfly

Stephen R. Swinburne

Illustrated by Bruce Hiscock

Non-Fiction Picture Book

Ages 5 to 8

Boyds Mills Press, 2006, 1-59078-082-5

  This is the story of an extraordinary animal, a small golden yellow butterfly which, despite its “paper-thin wings” and its tiny body, flies up to two thousand miles to find a new place to live. Every so often the cloudless sulphur butterfly leaves its home in the Yucatan Peninsula to fly across the Gulf of Mexico to the southern and eastern states in America. We are not sure how they know that it is time to leave but they do, in their hundreds, forming a cloud of yellow which trails across the sky.

  It is an arduous journey and many of their number do not make it. Some fall prey to animals which snap them out of the air. Others get tired and fall into the ocean where they are washed away by the waves. In this narrative we get to follow one particular butterfly, a male that has a notch in one of his wings. This intrepid traveler flies all the way from his tropical forest home to a garden in the state of Vermont.

  With its image filled account of this extraordinary journey and its stunning watercolor paintings, this picture book is sure to delight and astonish readers of all ages. The author conveys his own awe and admiration for the butterflies in his writing, and adds to the information provided in the main text by supplementing it with a fact filled author’s note which can be found at the back of the book.

  This book is a must for anyone who likes nature and wildlife.

 

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