Rhyming text describes how various insects camouflage themselves to protect against predators.

Tells the story of animal camouflage in nature while introducing new words to young readers

Rhyming text describes how various insects camouflage themselves to protect against predators.

Describes, using rhyming text, how various sea animals change color to blend in with their surroundings

Creative early childhood activities incorporate art and role-playing to teach basic natural science concepts about meadows and the concept of protective coloration. During the activities, children make flowers and grass for a mural, then talk about small animals they've seen in real grass or on flowers. They decorate camouflaged paper butterflies and make hungry bird puppets, then act out the behavior of birds and butterflies.

Anita Endrezze has deep memories. Her father was a Yaqui Indian. Her mother traced her heritage to Slovenia, Germany, Romania, and Italy. And her stories seem to bubble up from this ancestral cauldron. Butterfly Moon is a collection of short stories based on folk tales from around the world. But its stories are set in the contemporary, everyday world. Or are they? Endrezze tells these stories in a distinctive and poetic voice. Fantasy often intrudes into reality. Alternate “realities” and shifting perspectives lead us to question our own perceptions. Endrezze is especially interested in how humans hide feelings or repress thoughts by developing shadow selves. In “Raven’s Moon,” she introduces the shadow concept with a Black Moon, the “unseen reflection of the known.” (Of course the story is about a witch couple who seem very much in love.) The title character in “The Wife Who Lived on Wind” is an ogress who lives in a world somewhat similar to our own, but only somewhat. “The Vampire and the Moth Woman” reveals shape-shifters living among us. Not surprisingly, Trickster appears in these tales. As in Native American stories, Trickster might be a fox or a coyote or a raven or a human—or something in between. “White Butterflies” and “Where the Bones Are” both deal with devastating diseases that swept through Yaqui country in the 1530s. Underneath their surfaces are old Yaqui folktales that feature the greatest Trickster of all: Death (and his little brother Fate). Enjoyably disturbing, these stories linger—deep in our memory.