New Arrivals: Butterflies (Handle With Care by Loree Griffin Burns) and Food Facts (Food For Thought, by Ken Robbins)

A beautiful new book arrived today at the library, all about the practice of growing butterflies for use in museums and schools and for study and propagation.  I didn't even know you could grow butterflies commercially!

The other was one I pulled for inclusion in our final Summer Reading Program about Food Science, but it's waaay too wordy for me to use.  I find this very sad, because it's a lovely good book with lots of snack-sized snippets of myth and lore and fact and history around various foods.  

Handle With Care: An Unusual Butterfly Journey

Loree Griffin Burns, photographs by Ellen Harasimowicz

ISBN: 9780761393429
Read July 25, 2014

My only quibble with this book is that I would have liked to know what the recipients are going to be doing with the butterfly pupae they are receiving.  I'm pretty sure that's going to involve testing and dead butterflies, which wouldn't exactly fit the tone they were going for, but would it have killed them to show them being sent to a school, studied, and released?  Maybe so.  

Regardless, this is a very interesting book, and a great factual and niche addition to a butterfly collection.  The story features a butterfly farm in Costa Rica, where the butterflies are kept in a screened and secured greenhouse, with guards to monitor and keep out predators and competition, and the resulting caterpillars are harvested, allowed to pupate, and then the pupae are sent off in protected silver mailing boxes (with adorable little compartments inside) to whomever needs butterfly pupae.

My favorite photograph shows a female employee keeping notes, surrounded by tray upon tray of various different kinds and stages of pupae.  It's a fascinating picture.  Sadly, either the intended audience age or the limitations on page count prevents the author and photographer from listing the types of butterflies and pupae that are on display - leaving them interesting but anonymous, which is a bit frustrating.

Otherwise this book is splendid; gorgeous and enlightening.

Food for Thought: The Stories Behind the Things We Eat

Ken Robbins (on-site and staged photography) 

ISBN: 9781596433434

Read July 25, 2014

The staged photography is occasionally a bit precious, but the factoids and on-site photographs more than make up for that.  This is a good book for a reality lover, or for a long-term classroom discussion - there's just SO MUCH TEXT that it is nearly impossible to use in an active children's program in a  library setting.  Now, I don't mind the text - it's good, it's interesting, it's informative, it's varied; but it's just too much.  This is one where I almost wonder if it's more intended to be a picture book for adults - something that is ostensibly for kids, but really intended to keep their parents occupied and interested.  Again, nothing wrong with that, but it is frustrating when I'm looking for something to use in a program, and it's so terribly unsuitable, despite the perfection of the premise.  Still - if you want to look at really pretty food and learn little tidbits of history and story about them, this is a great book to browse through!