A caterpillar's journey from egg to butterfly…or maybe moth."A caterpillar," McCloskey writes, alongside an inside peek at a specimen with important parts labeled, "is a tube with a stomach." As impersonal (and true) as that may be, his endearing cartoon images of various kinds of caterpillars will give young readers good cause to join two budding investigators-one light-skinned, the other dark-skinned-and a cat in learning about eggs, instars (or stages), anatomy, cocoons, and chrysalises on the way to witnessing in sequential views a set of marvelous transformations. Nearly every figure in the cleanly drawn scenes, including the cat, offers simple facts and playful comments on the way: "And what do you think comes out…of the chrysalis or the cocoon?" "A big baboon?" "NO!" "A small raccoon?" "NO!" "A dish that ran away with the spoon?" "NO!" Along with pointing out physical differences between butterflies and moths, McCloskey goes on to depict examples of both posed next to their different-looking juvenile forms and closes with a quick summation of the monarch's migratory life cycle.An animated entry about a common backyard miracle. (Graphic nonfiction. 5-7)

PreS-Gr 2— The sixth entry in McCloskey's "Giggle and Learn" series, this is a collection of concise, creative science comics that explore the lives of small, everyday animals. Though the butterfly/moth life cycle is a familiar pedagogical tool, McCloskey's emphasis on the caterpillar stage offers a fresh angle—including the contents of a caterpillar's first meal (they voraciously consume their own egg), their prime methods of movement (silk strands help them move through the trees, and prolegs allow them to hang upside down), and comparisons of a caterpillar's appearance with their butterfly counterpart. Young children, a girl in blue overalls who presents as Black and a boy in a hiking vest who presents as white with red hair, serve as amateur entomologists, explaining each element of the caterpillar's development in a friendly, intentional tone. Caterpillars chime in from the corners of pages with lightly comedic observations. To wit, a caterpillar emits a large burp on the book's title page. McCloskey has an artistic gift for presenting precisely painted scientific illustrations to young children in an unpretentious way, and an unpaneled, intuitive flow from image to image guides the book's subtle narrative logic. This title may appeal to a variety of reading levels, through more advanced narrative text, simpler vocabulary used in caterpillar conversations, and visual elements that clearly document the caterpillar's life cycle without words. VERDICT A multilayered, richly illustrated examination of a familiar crawling creature, yielding new pleasures and perspectives with each turn of the page. A great curricular tie-in for elementary students.— Emilia Packard