The Mystery of the Monarchs: How Kids, Teachers, and Butterfly Fans Helped Fred and Norah Urquhart Track the Great Monarch Migration by Barb Rosenstock and Erika Meza (illustrator) is a fascinating and absorbing account of how the mystery of where millions of monarch butterflies migrate over the winter was solved by Fred Urquhart, a Canadian professor of zoology and hundreds of citizens from three different countries. Fred, who lived in Toronto was a “bug man,” from the time he was eight. One of the bugs that fascinated him was the monarch butterfly. He knew a lot about the monarchs including that “during the fall, the monarchs disappeared.” Fred even wrote to a famous professor. “He asked: ‘Where do the monarchs go? He got a surprise answer: No one knew…. It was a mystery that Fred wanted to solve….” For ten years as he worked as a scientist he tried different methods of tagging the butterflies, but never heard back from anyone who found the tagged insects.
Later, his wife, Norah Patterson, helped him enlist others in tracking the butterflies. Norah wrote about their project in magazines and newspapers to ask for help in tagging the monarchs and returning any tags insects that were found. Finally, the couple had help. “Who helped the most? Kids and teachers. Hundreds of classes joined Fred and Norah’s research team.”
As the tagged monarchs were found, Fred and Norah were able to plot lines on a map of North America to show where the monarchs were tagged and where they were later recovered. “One year, 13,800 monarchs were tagged and 128 were returned.” Their map was pointing south. “Fred and Norah searched from the Atlantic to the Gulf of Mexico for a place millions of monarchs might hide.” They continued their search in Mexico but the mystery continued. It wasn’t until two new researchers, Catalina and Ken who lived in Mexico joined the search, that the mystery was solved.
But that took another two years of searching. High in cool forest of Cerro Pelon they discovered “Monarchs, millions of them.” Catalina and Ken telephoned the news to Fred. When he stepped into that forest, he was “Stunned by the sight.” He noticed one of the monarchs had a tag. “Almost fifty years after asking the question, now Fred knew for sure. Where do the monarchs go? Aqui. Here.”
The extensive back matter notes and photographs by Rosenstock and Meza gives more information about the monarchs and the search to find them. Meza was born in the Mexico state where the monarchs winter. The information in the back also shows a a graphic of the life cycle of the monarchs. In addition there is a map that shows the different paths of the migrations. Finally, there is a short story of PS 397, that relates how two junior high school students in Minnesota and their teacher tagged 100 monarchs. One of their tagged butterflies was later found by Fred 1,750 miles away in Cerro Pelon! -Recommended by Marilyn Carpenter, Professor Emeritus Eastern Washington University
Title: The Mystery of the Monarchs
Author: Barb Rosenstock
Illustrator: Erika Meza
ISBN: 9781984829566
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
PubDate: May 31, 2022
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- Themes: Barb Rosenstock, Erika Meza, Marilyn Carpenter, The Mystery of the Monarchs
- Descriptors: WOW Recommends