Summer Birds: The Butterflies of Maria Merian Hardcover – Picture Book, April 27, 2010

SUMMER BIRDS was nominated for the 2011 Rodda Book Award sponsored by the Church and Synagogue Library Association (CSLA), an international organization serving congregational libraries of all faiths. CSLA's Rodda Award is named for Dorothy Rodda Sargent, a lifetime member and one of the founders of the organization. This award recognizes a book which exhibits excellence in writing and has contributed significantly to congregational libraries through promotion of spiritual growth. The award is given to books for adults, young adults, and children on a three-year-rotational basis. The 2011 Rodda Award focuses on books for children and this year's award will be presented at the CSLA annual conference to be held at the Hilton Embassy Row Hotel in Washington,D.C., July 19-22. To learn more about CSLA and the Rodda Award go to [...].

The artwork in this story is beautiful, imaginative, and probably inspired by Maria Merian herself. My children (4-7) enjoy this story, ask for it repeatedly, linger on the pages when reading themselves, and can retell the story of Maria Merian's life. This also coincides well with the insect life cycle, a commonly featured part of curricula from pre-school through 2nd grade and can be a nice supplement to academic discussions.

This is an outstanding book in every way. "The true story of a girl who broke new ground as a scientist and an artist!"Margarita Engle's writing and the pictures by Julie Paschkis combine so well to tell the story of Maria Merian, who I learned was born in Germany (1647).I studied and worked in education for 20 years and had the privilege of teaching students from the early childhood level to grandparents. In my opinion, this book will appeal to all. As I watch butterflies from now on, I will think of "Summer Birds." My mother was German, so I also felt a personal connection. Wonderful book!

The illustrations were beautiful, but the story line did not quite hang together. The book did not adequately introduce Maria Merian to those who have never heard of her before. It stated a couple of different times that insects were considered evil, but did not say by whom, and in what way. Were they thought to be poisonous? Harmful to crops? Demonic? Agents of evil pagan gods? I would not recommend this book to anyone for these reasons.

I am sending this to our Granddaughters in July. I fell in love with it and shared it with friends. The illustrations are just beautiful and the story of a brave young girl who did her research and discovered how the butterflies perpetuate is a wonderful example for young girls. Our Granddaughters are 5 and 8. One wants to be scientist so I am sure she will identify with the story. I loved the name Summer Birds for butterflies. I also learned interesting facts from this book.

Gift to a special little girl.

I love this book and it’s message. It was very useful for an art lesson about nature drawing. This book is great to teach children to be persistent. I used it to talk about the Studio Habits of Mind because it demonstrates how artists use those habits.

Frankly, I bought this book for my granddaughter because of the illustrator and her clever use of folkloric symbolism in her art work. The story about a young girl who later became a biologist was a positive message to our current "princess" culture. I read the book to my granddaughter when it arrived. I found the story to be mediocre. No strong message for feminine power nor for challenging common societal thinking of the time. The story can't decide whether to be about the scientist or the insects and reptiles that are mentioned.The art work is also not up to snuff. There are a couple of really good compositions and the rest is filler.All in all, I feel I was somewhat snookered by this book promotion, and I doubt my granddaughter will seek out this book for the story nor the illustrations in her day to day book reading.

Good book, great story and pictures, but some of the wording is a bit confusing for a little one - the author switches between "summer birds" and "butterflies" a lot which my son finds confusing. But then he is 3, maybe it's for an older audience. He still finds the pictures enchanting.

Such beautiful illustrations, a lovely inspirational story, one to be read out loud I think, its a gorgeous purchase and I can see it becoming a family heirloom passed from Mother to daughter/son