Butterfly habitat's all over the world are being threatened.

The Family Butterfly Book
By Rick Mikula
Publication Date: May 2001
Pages: 176
ISBN – 1-58017-335-7, Hardcover, 1-58017-292-X trade paperback

Before I started reading Rick Mikula’s The Family Butterfly Book I fully anticipated a thorough education in butterfly species, history, and habitats, but never expected an experience in humility, empathy, and concern for the endangered butterfly. Rick’s knowledge of butterflies is outstanding. Rick’s love for the exquisite winged insect is awe-inspiring.

Information saturates every page in this wonderfully illustrated book from how to handle a butterfly, create butterfly habitats, and raise butterfly eggs, to the history of butterflies, year round butterfly activities, and photography tips and tricks. Readers will delight in the many instructive fillers and vibrant photographs. Did you know butterflies aren’t able to fly if the temperature is below 60 degrees Fahrenheit, or that butterflies see in ultraviolet range and enjoy colors and patterns that humans can’t? In addition, a gallery of butterflies shares information to aide readers in identifying 40 different species. It includes a map of breeding range, host and nectar plants, magnified drawings of butterfly eggs, length and description of caterpillars, and distinctive features of chrysalises.

This is a book that will no doubt urge families away from the television and electronic games and out into the yard for exploration. Parents and children will know how to carefully tape a butterfly’s wing so it can fly and live a normal lifespan, as well as administer CPR to a weak or injured butterfly. How about starting a butterfly farm?

If the didactics don’t sell you on butterflies, believe me the author’s emotive declarations will. Butterfly habitats are being destroyed. Hybrids and ornamentals are replacing the earth’s natural wildflowers. Insecticides kill. In the Foreward, Orley R. Taylor, Ph.D., Director, Monarch Press, states that Rick Mikula has given the world a gift, and guarantees that once the reader familiarizes himself with the world of butterflies, commonly overlooked plants and small creatures will soon become objects of great interest. I am apt to agree.

Whether you live in the country or city, this is one book you’ll definitely want in your family library. However, with the beautiful cover and inside illustrations, you might discover it’s been moved to the coffee table.

Richelle Putnam
Author of Fallout, a Middle-Grade Fiction
www.amazon.com and www.barnesandnoble.com
Contributor to Suite 101's Real People, Real Stories www.suite101.com
Regional Representative for NAWW www.naww.org
Children and Young Adult Editor for Gotta Write Network www.members.aol.com/gwnlitmag/

The Family Butterfly Book
by Rick Mikula

Publication Date: May 2001
ISBN:1-58017-335-7, Hardcover, 1-58017-292-X trade paperback

Before I started reading Rick Mikula’s "The Family Butterfly Book" I fully anticipated a thorough education in butterfly species, history, and habitats, but never expected an experience in humility, empathy, and concern for the endangered butterfly. Rick’s knowledge of butterflies is outstanding. Rick’s love for the exquisite winged insect is awe-inspiring.
(Read the rest at Gotta Write Network)