Deborah Hopkinson - Butterflies Belong Here: A Story of One Idea, Thirty Kids, and a World of Butterflies

For Keelia, Blaine, and Eliot, and in loving memory of their shining Max DH

For Sung-Sau So MS

Text copyright 2020 by Deborah Hopkinson.
Illustrations copyright 2020 by Meilo So.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Names: Hopkinson, Deborah, author. | So, Meilo, illustrator. Title: Butterflies belong here / by Deborah Hopkinson ; illustrated by Meilo So. Description: San Francisco : Chronicle Books LLC, [2020] | Summary: An immigrant girl explains how she learned English by reading about Monarch butterflies, and how, troubled by their decline, she got her classmates and neighbors together to build a butterfly garden. | Includes bibliographical references.

Identifiers: LCCN 2018046397 | ISBN 9781452176802 (hc) 9781452177007 (epub2), 9781452183480 (epub3), 9781452183473 (Kindle)

Subjects: LCSH: Monarch butterflyJuvenile fiction. | Butterfly gardeningJuvenile fiction. | Immigrant childrenJuvenile fiction. | Self-confidenceJuvenile fiction. | CYAC: Monarch butterflyFiction. | Butterfly gardensFiction. | ButterfliesFiction. | ImmigrantsFiction. | Self-confidenceFiction. | LCGFT: Picture books. Classification: LCC PZ7.H778125 Bu 2020 | DDC 813.54 [E] dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018046397

Design by Alice Seiler and Jill Turney.
Typeset in Harriet, Bizzle-Chizzle, Gill Sans, and Meilo font.

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San Francisco, California 94107

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Last spring, we took a class picture.

Thats me in the back.

I was a little like a caterpillar then:

quiet and almost invisible.

I didnt like to stand out or be noticed.

I know a lot about caterpillars and butterflies. Thats because when I first came here, I couldnt read English. Our librarian helped me choose books with lots of pictures. My favorite had a butterfly on the cover.

Monarch butterflies are soft and gentle, like my baby brother. Some monarchs make a long, long journey, just like we did. They have to be strong to fly so far.

In March, monarchs head north from their overwintering grounds. Most have spent the winter in Mexico during the colder months, although some have stayed in Southern California.

The migrating females race against time, since they will only live a few more weeks. They stop in the southern United States to lay their eggs, always on one kind of plant : milkweed. This first generation born in the early spring is the offspring of the monarchs who overwintered in Mexico. Each successive generation travels farther north. It will take three to four generations to reach the northern United States and Canada.

During the summer, non - migrating female butterflies only live three to five weeks, but during that time they can lay hundreds of eggs. They usually lay only one egg on each plant so each baby caterpillar has enough food to eat.

After three to five days, a tiny caterpillar chews its way out of its egg. The caterpillar is the butterflys larval stage.

It will be a caterpillar for ten to fourteen days. During this time, a caterpillar grows a lot, from millimeters to inches ( 2545 millimeters).

A caterpillar is an invertebrate, which means it doesnt have a backbone like we do. As it grows, its soft, outer exoskeleton stretches until it cant stretch anymore, and then it splits. The caterpillar sheds, or molts, the old exoskeleton and grows a new one. This happens not just once, but five times.

When summer came,

I felt sure Id see monarch butterflies.

I knew what to look for:

large black and orange wings

with a border of small white specks.

I wanted to see them

flit from flower to flower

sipping nectar.

But though I looked hard

in parks, fields, and the community

gardens near our apartment

I couldnt find even one.

I wondered if monarch butterflies

belonged here. Sometimes I

wondered if we did, too.

After a caterpillar has molted five times, its ready to pupate. It looks for a safe spot. Then, if its a butterfly caterpillar, it forms a chrysalis. If its a moth caterpillar, it spins a cocoon.

Over the next eleven to fifteen days, the caterpillar transforms into an adult butterfly. Groups of cells in its body, called imaginal discs, develop into the parts of a butterfly: wings, organs, legs, and antennae.

The chrysalis darkens. Next comes eclosure, which means to emerge from the chrysalis as an adult butterfly.

The butterfly pushes its way out through a crack near the bottom.

Through a special process, the butterfly pumps fluid into its wings, which expand and take their final shape. It also presses the two parts of its proboscis together, which forms a straw that allows it to drink nectar.

Adult monarchs feed on nectar from many flowering plants such as coneflowers, butterfly bushes, sunflowers, verbena, and zinnias.

When school started again in the fall,

I ran to find the butterfly book

the very first time we visited the library.

It was easier for me to read it now,

and I found out why monarchs

have become so hard to find.

Monarchs need a special plant called milkweed.

Female monarchs will lay their eggs only on milkweed.

Not only that, when baby caterpillars break out of their eggs after three to five days, milkweed is all they eat.

Milkweed and monarchs go together!