Available:*
Library | Call Number | Status |
|---|---|---|
Searching... Bayport Public Library | J 595.789 PRI | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... R.H. Stafford Library (Woodbury) | J 595.789 PRI | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... R.H. Stafford Library (Woodbury) | J 595.789 PRI | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Stillwater Public Library | Q J 595.789 PRI | Searching... Unknown |
Bound With These Titles
On Order
Summary
Summary
Author Notes
Laurence Pringle was raised on an isolated farm in western New York. He studied wildlife biology at Cornell University and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and had begun to seek a doctorate in that field. But for several reasons, including trouble with some subjects, Pringle decided to switch to journalism.
In 1962, he was looking for a job as an editor and writer with an outdoor or science magazine. He found an opening with Nature and Science, a children's magazine published by The American Museum of Natural History. Pringle joined that magazine in early 1963 and during the seven years of that magazine's life, learned a lot about writing for young readers. His friend and editor at the magazine encouraged Pringle to write a book for children. His first manuscript was rejected by several publishers but was finally accepted and published in 1968.
When Nature and Science was disbanded in the spring of 1970, Pringle had two choices: look for another editing job or try to survive as a freelance writer. He chose to become a writer and is now the highly acclaimed author of over a hundred books. He writes mainly biographical and environmental stories for children and young adults.
Pringle is the recipient of two major awards for his body of writing; the Eva L. Gordon Award for Children's Science Literature and the Washington Post/Children's Book Guild Nonfiction Award in 1999. He has won national awards from the American Nature Study Society and the National Wildlife Federation. Many of his books, including Everybody Has a Bellybutton, have been cited by the National Science Teacher's Association/Children's Book Council as "Outstanding Science Trade Book for Children." In 1998, the National Council of Teachers of English selected his book An Extraordinary Life: The Story of a Monarch Butterfly for the Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction for Children.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
Horn Book Review
I1="BLANK" I2="BLANKFleischman's innovative short novel is the story of an urban garden started by a child and nurtured by people of all ages and ethnic backgrounds. Each of the thirteen chapters is narrated by a different character, allowing the reader to watch as a community develops out of disconnected lives and previous suspicions. Although the total effect of the brief chapters is slightly superficial, some of the individual narratives are moving. The opening chapter about nine-year-old Kim, a Vietnamese immigrant, is a vivid portrait of a child who longs for the approval of her deceased father. The novel is didactic in purpose-folks of all ages, economic backgrounds, and ethnicities put aside their differences to create a beautiful, rich harvest-but effective in execution. From HORN BOOK, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
Gr. 3^-6. A map of a monarch butterfly's migratory route from Massachusetts to Mexico sets the stage for this exceptional book. Rather than giving the usual survey of the habits, habitat, life cycle, and predators of butterflies, Pringle brings immediacy to his subject by focusing sharply on one monarch, whom he names Danaus. Beginning as an egg on the leaf of a milkweed plant, Danaus goes from caterpillar to chrysalis to butterfly and makes the long flight to Mexico. There she survives the winter, mates, and flies north to Texas, where she lays her own eggs in a milkweed field. The surprisingly absorbing story of Danaus' life is followed by a discussion of the monarchs' endangered winter refuges in Mexico and an explanation of how to raise monarch butterflies from the caterpillar stage. Throughout the book, Marstall's colorful paintings offer clear, brilliantly colored illustrations of the caterpillars growing, eating, resting, mating, avoiding predators, and flying, flying, flying. An excellent book on a popular species. --Carolyn Phelan
School Library Journal Review
Gr 4-8Even libraries that already own Ethan Herberman's The Great Butterfly Hunt (S & S, 1990; o.p.), Kathryn Lasky's Monarchs (Harcourt, 1993), and Bianca Lavies's Monarch Butterflies (Dutton, 1993) need this book. It is written as a story, following the life cycle of a female caterpillarDanausfrom an egg laid in a Massachusetts hayfield to her death in an Arkansas pasture many months and a fantastic migration later. The narrative is scientifically sound and includes information from the most recent research on these familiar aerial flitterers. The attractive, oversized book is lavished with realistic, full-color paintings of Monarchs in all stages of their development and their habitats. Colorful sidebars and a variety of maps are accompanied by informative captions, and the whole is arranged into a particularly appealing, readable, and accurate package. A modicum of anthropomorphism does occur, but it is infrequent and low-key. An effort to avoid an onrushing car or the state of a heavily gravid female Monarch with no milkweed in sight may well be "frantic," and these slight slippages are unobtrusive. Following the body of the work are chapters on protecting the remaining winter refuges of these feather-light migrants and on raising Monarchs at home or in the classroom. A list of further readingsmany of them juvenile titlesand an index complete the harmonious whole.Patricia Manning, formerly at Eastchester Public Library, NY (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
A migration flight from New England to Mexico and back again would be impressive for a large goose; for a monarch butterfly, it's nothing short of miraculous. Pringle (Smoking, 1996, etc.) and Marstall capture that miracle in this chronicle of the lifetime of a monarch called Danaus (after its Latin name). Readers follow Danaus on her perilous journey from Massachusetts, slipping through cat paws and struggling with bad weather until she and thousands of other monarchs find their winter homes in Mexico and California. Even there, life is dangerous: Cold weather and predators kill off many monarchs before spring arrives, when they mate, fly north, lay their eggs, and die. Pringle writes simply of all the small, fascinating details that make up the monarch's life cycle, while illustrations and captions help readers visualize the information, e.g., that delicate gold dots on a monarch's chrysalis may help disguise the chrysalis from predators by reflecting sunlight like drops of dew, and the caterpillar's markings warn predators that it eats milkweed, making it poisonous to some. Marstall provides nearly photorealistic views of biological processes, but never neglects the poetic aspect of the information. A superb, well-researched book that finds extraordinary science in the everyday life of a butterfly. (maps, diagrams, further reading, index) (Nonfiction. 8-12)
Table of Contents
| From a Massachusetts Hayfield | p. 11 |
| Across a Continent | p. 23 |
| To a Mountain in Mexico | p. 39 |
| An Extraordinary Life | p. 51 |
| Saving the Monarchs' Winter Refuges | p. 58 |
| How To Raise Monarch Butterflies | p. 60 |
| Further Reading | p. 62 |
| Index | p. 64 |
