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Sandra Markleis the author of morethan two hundredchildren’s books, which have wonnumerous awards,including BostonGlobe-Horn Book Honor
Book, IRA/CBC Children’s Choice,NSTA/CBC Outstanding Science TradeBooks for Children, and ALA NotableBooks for Children. She lives with herhusband, photographer Skip Jeffery, inNew Zealand. sandra-markle.blogspot.com
Leslie Wuis a fine artist and theillustrator of the NewYork Times bestsellerTHE VERY BEST DADDY OFALL and BIJOU, BONBON& BEAU: THE KITTENSWHO DANCED FOR DEGAS.
She lives in Oregon.lesliewuart.com
One late afternoon in early September,
Jilly sees something remarkable in the
distance while she’s playing on the
beach with her dog.
It looks like black pepper is raining
from the clear blue sky.
As the dark rain comes closer, it turns
into a shimmering orange cloud and
sinks into the woods near the beach.
What can it be?
Jilly and her mother set out to find the
strange cloud. At first Jilly’s imagination
runs wild, but her mother shows her
how to look and listen quietly—and
together they make an amazing
discovery.
BUTTERFLY TREE is an eloquent story of
a mother and daughter exploring the
mysteries of the natural world.
When you’re making a memory, youwant it to last as long as possible.
Sandra MarkleIllustrated by Leslie Wu
Children’s
www.peachtree-online.com
ISBN 978-1-56145-539-3 $16.95
Tree
ISBN 13: 978-1-56145-539-3ISBN 10: 1-56145-539-3 $16.95
MARKLE / W
UButte
rfly
Tre
e
What could it be? I wonder.What do you think it could be? Mom asks.
Maybe sand blownall the way from a desert, I guess.
Or maybe something much spookier,like a genie, or a ghost,
or some sort of wizard.
Let’s find out, Mom says.
Printed and bound in Singapore
Butterfly Tree
Butterfly
TreeButterfly
TreeButterfly
Butterfly Tree Interior-PRINTER:Orange Cloud interior test 3/3/11 2:04 PM Page 1
With love for Shirley Dodd
—S. M.
To my mother and daughter
—L. W.
Sandra MarkleIllustrated by Leslie Wu
TreeButterfly
TreeButterfly
Butterfly Tree Interior-PRINTER:Orange Cloud interior test 3/3/11 2:04 PM Page 2
It’s late afternoon in early September.
I’m playing fetch on the beach with Fudge.
I toss the stick. I stop.
Shading my eyes with my hand,
I look out over the slate gray water.
Out past the rocky point,
way out over Lake Erie,
it looks like it’s raining black pepper
from a clear blue sky.
Fudge bounds back with the stick in his mouth,
but I keep on watching.
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The black rain becomes a wispy mist.
Then it turns into a cloud
that grows bigger,
until it’s blimp-sized.
But this cloud isn’t white
or gray.
It’s orange,
and it shimmers.
What in the world could it be?
Fallout from a distant volcano?
Smoke from a faraway fire?
Could it be an alien spaceship?
Or the breath of an invisible dragon?
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With Fudge at my heels,
I run as fast as I can
up the path to our cabin.
Mom’s packing the car.
It’s nearly time to go home.
What’s happened, Jilly?
she asks, looking worried.
Look! I exclaim.
Mom gasps.
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I ask Mom if we should
get in the car and escape.
But she orders Fudge to stay
and heads for the beach.
Hurry, Jilly! she calls. Walk on fast feet!
The sand is soft.
Plowing through it is hard work.
So I step in Mom’s footprints, which is easier,
except for when I have to take giant steps to match hers.
Not far ahead, the orange cloud
comes ashore and sinks
into the woods edging the beach.
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I think it’s time to turn back.
But Mom heads for the woods.
What could it be? I wonder.
What do you think it could be? Mom asks.
Maybe sand blown
all the way from a desert, I guess.
Or maybe something much spookier,
like a genie,
or a ghost,
or some sort of wizard.
Let’s find out, Mom says.
I’m not sure I want to.
But I follow her up a sandy bank
bearded with dry grass
and into the woods.
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It’s much cooler
and dimmer here.
My arms prickle with goose bumps
as we slip through the shadows
that knit the tall trees together.
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When I hear a rustle above me, I stop and look up.
I spot something orange move.
Mom! I say, pointing.
She comes close.
But it’s only a Baltimore oriole
looking down at us from its high perch.
Shhh! Mom whispers.
Be quiet.
Keep looking.
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Our footsteps sound too loud.
I feel like I should tiptoe.
I look so hard I think my eyes will pop.
Then I spot something orange
in high branches just up ahead.
Is it part of the cloud?
Or a monster ready to pounce?
But it’s only a wind-tattered kite
the forest has caught.
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Guess we should turn back, I say.
But Mom points left,
where we spy golden-orange
between dark tree trunks.
But it’s only a clearing
with one big, tall tree
covered in sunlit clumps
of orange leaves.
Suddenly, Fudge races past us,
barking and chasing
a squirrel up the tree.
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An explosion
of golden-orange bits
fills the sunlight
streaming between branches.
Wow! I exclaim. They’re not leaves.
They’re butterflies.
Monarch butterflies, Mom says.
There must be hundreds—thousands.
The tree looks like it is in motion.
All the butterflies are slowly fanning their wings.
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We are inside an orange cloud
of still more fluttering butterflies.
A monarch perches on Mom’s nose.
More land on her head.
She looks like she has butterfly hair.
She points at me, and I know
I have butterfly hair too.
One lands on Fudge’s nose
but only stays ’til he jumps and barks.
Then all the butterflies are airborne again.
Butterfly Tree Interior-PRINTER:Orange Cloud interior test 3/3/11 2:06 PM Page 24
Mom tugs on Fudge’s collar
and we leave the clearing.
But we stay in the woods, watching.
Mom tells me the monarchs are only resting
during their journey south for the winter.
The butterflies settle again
onto every branch and twig.
The big tree looks bejeweled
in the glow of the setting sun.
Butterfly Tree Interior-PRINTER:Orange Cloud interior test 3/3/11 2:06 PM Page 26
Finally, we head back to the car.
Mom tells me she remembers
seeing the migrating butterflies
once before,
when she was a girl.
I’ll always remember seeing the monarchs too, I say,
and that we saw them together.
We walk slowly.
We’re in no hurry now.
When you’re making a memory,
you want it to last as long as possible.
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More
INfo
rMAT
IoN
MONARCHS do not fly in a flock the way birds
do. Each butterfly flies alone, but it follows the
same path as lots of other monarchs. So when they
land to feed or rest, there may be thousands all
together. The amazing journey lasts for weeks and
takes the monarchs on a route they’ve never
covered before. Monarch butterflies traveling from
Canada fly as far as 2,000 miles (3,218 kilometers).
Those migrating east of the Rocky Mountains
winter in Mexico. Those to the west of the Rockies
winter in southern California. At the end of their
journey, the monarchs settle in the same forests
monarchs have wintered in year after year.
Monarchs stop to feed on nectar as they migrate.
If you live along their flyways, plant colorful
wildflowers. Then your home may be a monarch
stopover. You’ll need to check with a local plant
nursery for what to grow in your area. Here are
some flowers monarchs especially like: sunflowers,
New England asters, butterfly weed, and purple
coneflowers.
I GREW UP in northern Ohio,
where weekends and vacations
meant wonderful times on the
shores of Lake Erie. For me,
beautiful autumn afternoons will
forever spark the memory of the
day I happened to be on the beach
when a migrating flock of monarchs
crossed the lake and settled for the
night. Their arrival at first seemed
spooky—then magical. Being
surrounded by these golden-orange
butterflies and seeing a tree totally
covered with fluttering, shimmering
monarchs was unforgettable.
Auth
or’s
Not
e
Trav
elin
g M
onar
chs BOOKS
MONARCH BUTTERFLIES UP CLOSE by Carmen Bredeson. (Enslow) Real photos let you take a close look at monarch butterflies during every stage of their life.
MONARCH BUTTERFLY by Gail Gibbons. (Holiday House) Learn more about these butterflies and how they live.
MONARCHS by Kathryn Lasky. (Gulliver Books)Beautiful photos and text share the monarch butterfly’s migration. Learn how people are working to protect the monarchs’ winter-overhomes.
MEXICO OR BUST! MIGRATION PATTERNS
by Deborah Underwood. (Raintree) Follow monarchs as they travel south for the winter.
WEBSITES
MONARCH PICTURE STORY
www.kidzone.ws/animals/monarch_butterfly.htmHave fun investigating monarchs. Don’t miss the animated jigsaw puzzles.
JOURNEY NORTH’S MONARCH BUTTERFLY
MIGRATION TRACKING PROJECT
www.learner.org/jnorth/monarchGet up-to-date information on migrating monarchs. Explore the site to read true stories about these butterflies, see photos, and learn lots of cool facts.
MONARCH BUTTERFLY USAwww.monarchbutterflyusa.com/Cycle.htmSee a monarch hatch on this animated site. Watcha caterpillar grow and change into its pupa stage,then see an adult emerge.
U N I T E DS T A T E S
C A N A D A
M E X I C O Gulf of Mexico
Atlantic OceanPacific Ocean
WINTER
ROOSTS
NORTHERNMOST
MILKWEED LIMIT
Butterfly Tree Interior-PRINTER:Orange Cloud interior test 3/3/11 2:07 PM Page 30
Acknowledgments
The author would like to thank Dr. Chip Taylor, Director of Monarch Watch
(www.MonarchWatch.org), University of Kansas, and Dr. Simon Pollard,
Curator of Invertebrate Zoology at Canterbury Museum, Christchurch,
New Zealand, for sharing their enthusiasm and expertise.
A very special thank-you to Skip Jeffery for sharing the creative process.
Published by PEACHTREE PUBLISHERS1700 Chattahoochee AvenueAtlanta, Georgia 30318-2112www.peachtree-online.com
Text © 2011 by Sandra Markle Illustrations © 2011 by Leslie Wu
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in anyform or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy,recording, or any other—except for brief quotations in printedreviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.
Art direction by Loraine M. JoynerComposition by Melanie McMahon IvesIllustrations created in pastels. Title typeset in Manfred Klein’sParmaPetit-Normal; text typeset in International Typeface Corporation’s Leawood Book and Korinna.
Printed in March 2011 by Tien Wah Press in Singapore10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 First Edition
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Markle, Sandra.Butterfly tree / written by Sandra Markle ; illustrated byLeslie Wu.
p. cm.Summary: When Jilly encounters a mysterious orange cloudon a family outing to Lake Erie, she and her mother go to investigate the phenomenon. Includes facts about monarchbutterflies. Includes bibliographical references.ISBN 978-1-56145-539-3 / 1-56145-539-3[1. Monarch butterfly--Migration--Fiction. 2. Butterflies--Fiction.] I. Wu, Leslie, ill. II. Title.PZ7.M3396Bu 2010[E]--dc22
2009040526
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