Becoming Charley
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
A New York Times bestselling author and an award-winning illustrator team up for a striking, modern-day take on The Very Hungry Caterpillar that celebrates staying true to oneself.
Everyone is trying to teach Charley the right way to become a butterfly: Eat your milkweed! Think black! Think orange!
But Charley's busy admiring the many beautiful things in the world. Like the swaying trees, and the tall mountains, and the turquoise sea. . . . Is there really a "right" way for Charley to become a butterfly?
Young readers will see themselves in Charley--a little caterpillar with an emerging identity--in this dazzling picture book that beautifully explores the nature of self-love.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this be-yourself story by DiPucchio (Not Yeti), Charley may look like the rest of the monarch caterpillars around him, but while the others "kept their heads down, eating, just as they'd been taught," Charley gazes dreamily up at the trees, the clouds, and the stars. His elders urge him to munch milkweed, the better to become "a big, strong butterfly," but Charley wonders about being "a spotted fawn. Or a waterfall." Part of the young caterpillars' lesson is to gaze at monarch-patterned cards so they'll know how to model themselves; Charley concentrates, instead, on wildflowers and mountains. Boldly hued digital spreads by Wise (Magnolia Flower) create a graphically simple caterpillar's-eye view that's loosely faithful to the natural world, highlighting monarch caterpillar coloration and the milkweed's starry compound flowers. After the chrysalises of Charley's cohort finally hatch and Charley isn't among them, a final surprise reveals his new form, which reflects the character's creativity as a young caterpillar. The idea that experiences and expectations shape creatures as they grow is gently and colorfully suggested, though, for the youngest readers, the difference between which elements are invented and which are fact may not be intuitively clear. Ages 3–7. Agent (for author and illustrator): Steven Malk, Writers House.
