Marigold's Wings

Steve Pitt is a Toronto-based freelance writer and an award-winning journalist. He has written many young adult and children's books, including Day of the Flying Fox: The True Story of World War II Pilot Charley Fox.

Marigold is a fat little caterpillar. She knows that some day she will
have the long slender body and beautiful wings of a butterfly, but right
now all she can do is pretend.

One day while she is daydreaming about flying, she falls with a soft
plunk to the ground. When she wakes up, she finds herself hanging upside
down in a cocoon while her bug friends look on with envy. After a few
weeks, Marigold emerges to find herself now a full-grown monarch
butterfly. Marigold knows she must migrate to Mexico like all the other
monarchs, but her well-meaning friends have doubts about whether she can
make it. As Marigold begins her long journey to Mexico, all the other
insects pass along the message to protect the young butterfly. Marigold
needs their help. Although she eventually makes it to her destination,
she has many near-misses with spiders, frogs, praying mantises, even
cows.

This book by award-winning author/illustrator Vlasta Van Kampen manages
to stick close to the scientific facts while remaining a charming
children’s story. Like her text, van Kampen’s beautiful
illustrations strike just the right balance between actual high realism
and anthropomorphized characters that readers can identify with. Highly
recommended.