The Butterfly’s Gift

Whimsical New Children's Book Features Unique Artwork

Follow a monarch butterfly through its development and maturation in “The Butterfly’s Gift” (published by AuthorHouse - http://www.authorhouse.com), the new children’s book by Joan Ellet Hogge.

Ideal for young readers and listeners alike, “The Butterfly’s Gift” uses rhythmic, rhyming text to chronicle the transformation of a tiny egg into a beautiful monarch butterfly. The story is accompanied by Hogge’s full-color, wonderfully distinctive watercolor illustrations, bringing the story of the butterfly’s development to life:

Soon, the egg breaks open and a worm wiggles free …
A tiny green larva you can hardly see.

This worm chews on a
green leaf night and day,
With hardly time to rest or play.

It eats and grows,
And sheds its skin …
’til it’s a black and white
Caterpillar with a double chin.

Included at the end of “The Butterfly’s Gift” is a lesson in how to draw a butterfly, with space for children to draw and color their own special creatures. Hogge encourages children to study and learn about other animals by sketching them, although she has a special affinity for butterflies. She says of her book:

The story of the transformation is beautiful for children to witness. There is a spiritual quality about it. After the egg breaks open, a chubby worm lives a busy life eating and growing. Then it weaves a web and spends time alone hanging from a strong tree limb in its chrysalis: growing, changing and learning. This is metaphor for what we all experience as we learn, change and grow “in our own skin” from children into unique human beings.

Joan Ellet Hogge is a recognized watercolorist and has studied with many nationally known artists. Her paintings are displayed in the Coutts Memorial Museum of Art, the Richardson Library, Northaven United Methodist Church, as well as corporate offices and private collections. She has a bachelor’s degree in English and a master’s degree in writing. “The Butterfly’s Gift” is her first book.