The Basics

Title: The Little Butterfly
Author: Sherry Shahan
ISBN: 9780375971891
Copyright Date: 1998 (text), 2015
Publisher: Random House
Reader Brand: Step Into Reading
Level: Level 2
Series: N/A

Thoughts

This book chronicles the life-cycle of a Monarch butterfly supported by photographs as illustrations.

Originally published as a picture book in 1998, this was recently re-released as a beginning reader in 2015. The photographs give great context clues as to what’s going on and most of the text is appropriate for a beginning reader. Harder words (like aphids and chrysalis) are given phonetic pronunciation guides within the text. Some words may prove to be a challenge to some readers (slurp, molting, sac) but this is a great opportunity for new vocabulary.

This book could be shelved in non-fiction or in beginning reader. I know many libraries in my area shelve both the reader and the picture in non-fiction. But I think it’s definitely possible to integrate these non-fiction readers into the mainstream collection.