The Butterfly's Gift
by
Book Cover & Preview Text
A chubby, round caterpillar, black and white, chews a green leaf, day and night.
When she's through eating, she finds a limb, one that will hold her---long and thin. She then weaves a web with silken thread, which she ties to her hind legs, and lowers her head.
The worm shuts her eyes, feeling sleepy and loved, and dreams of dancing in space up above.
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Book Details
About the Book
Creativity! That is what The Butterfly’s Gift celebrates and encourages in its readers. A beautiful story of the stages in a monarch’s development, it is certain to appeal to the curiosity and creativity of eight-to-twelve year olds. This book also includes a sketchbook with steps for drawing and painting a butterfly. Included, are drawing pages, which encourage a child to look closely and learn about other creatures in the world.
This book uses colorful watercolor illustrations, combined with poetic rhythm, to weave a tale of the transformation of a chubby worm to a beautiful butterfly. The worm spends its formative first days eating constantly and growing rapidly. Then it hibernates alone in its chrysalis. During this time, it changes and grows and discovers its true self. When a butterfly emerges from its crystalline egg, it shares its secret that life is about touching others in your own creative, colorful way.
An English teacher and Academic Language Therapist, as well as an artist, Joan Hogge understands the importance of art in helping children develop and appreciate their own unique gifts. Not only does this book beautifully describe the stages of the butterfly’s development, but it provides the sketch book as a “safe, contemplative, chrysalis” for children to begin to explore and connect with their own imagination and creativity.
Thus, the chubby worm’s transformation can be an inspiration for children to develop their creative wings and touch the world in their own beautiful way.
About the Author
For Joan Ellet Hogge, The Butterfly's Gift is the culmination of a childhood dream. A recognized watercolorist, Joan describes painting as "a spiritual experience which allows me to express the deep feelings about the beauty and humor I see in life."
She earned a B.A. in English and and an M.A. in writing and taught writing and English while earning certification as an Academic Language Therapist at SMU in Dallas, She remediated reading, spelling and writing in children and adults for many years.
In 1999, she retired and renewed her passion with painting to follow her dream. She studied painting with many nationally known artists, and wrote book reviews for a local news paper. Her painting, WILDFLOWER POTPOURRI, won the 1999 Richardson Wildflower! poster contest.
Her paintings have been juried into many shows and hang in The Coutts Memorial Museum of Art, The Richardson Library, Northanven United Methodist Church, Nortel and other corporate offices, as well as many private collections.
Having established herself as an artist, Joan's goal is now to concentrate on her writing and publishing. She has two children's books written and another in process which she hopes to illustrate, fulfilling her childhood dream of painting stories with words and watercolor.