Not a Butterfly Alphabet Book

October 15, 2019
"It's about time moths had their own book!" Pallotta extends his many topical alphabet books (most recently The Crab Alphabet Book, illustrated by Tom Leonard, 2019) with this seeming rebuttal to the glut of butterfly books. Collaborator Bersani's Prismacolor pencil and Photoshop illustrations are hands-down the stars here. Up-close pictures in brilliant, naturalistic colors and patterns dazzle the eye and will surely send readers out the door to hunt for some moth species. (The absence of a map and info about individual species' ranges may hamper them, though.) Pallotta rounds out the single large-font sentence identifying the letter of the alphabet and the species ("G is for Green Lips Moth") with a paragraph of information. These vary widely in both amount of information and relevance, many of them addressing moths in general rather than a specific moth. C (cow moth), for instance, talks about how most moths land (wings spread, as opposed to butterflies, which usually land with their wings folded), and D (diamond moth) makes a snarky comparison to a Delta Dart fighter jet. Though several pages talk about ways moths camouflage themselves, it's not until the letter I that the term is used: "This yellow moth is camouflaged when sitting on a yellow flower." Other entries teach readers about wing scales, anatomy, moths' attraction to light, their life cycle, a bit about what they eat and what eats them, and a few other differences between moths and butterflies. Indeed, moths do deserve to be recognized, and this a good springboard. (Informational picture book. 4-9)

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December 1, 2019
Preschool-G Move over, butterflies! Moths are all the rage here. The sheer variety of these winged insects is on beautiful display in this glib alphabet book, which highlights 26 types of moth while interspersing facts and trivia. The text can be jokey and uneven at times, but youngsters will glean enough insect info to make the reading worth their while. The real draw here is the large colored-pencil illustrations, which bring the many different patterns, textures, and colors of moths into focus. Mimics like the fly moth, green lips moth, and hummingbird moth will have readers scrutinizing the book's pages, while they'll ooh and aah over the colorful wings of the emperor, rosy maple, and sheep moths. Each entry gets a small paragraph of text?around three sentences?which may offer information on the featured insect or on moths in general, as well as a pair of spreads that zooms in on animal scales and the moth's lifecycle. Similarities and differences to butterflies are noted throughout, but moths consistently reign supreme. Recommended for larger collections.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)