Get ready for futuristic nature exploration!
This year’s YDL Family Read is Little Monarchs by Jonathan Case. This outdoor adventure graphic novel is set in the future, 50 years since humans have had to live underground during the day to avoid the sun, and nature is taking over again. Only Flora (a biologist) and 10-year-old Elvie can tolerate the sunlight, thanks to an antidote Flora made that relies on the scales of monarch butterfly wings.
The range of STEM topics explored in the book make it a perfect fit for this year’s Project STEM @ YDL hands-on programming. Each Family Read includes YDL events to help readers dive into the book’s themes and bring the book to life.
At the kickoff on March 9, make your own nature journal and get tips for observing, drawing, and writing about the natural world. As you fill your journal with entries throughout the spring, share your drawings and writing with us to enter to win an official Little Monarchs Adventure Satchel. You’ll also have an opportunity to learn from local artists and climate action advocates. Make water filters, mini blackberry pies, bottles of sun sickness serum from recycled materials, and nature art. Learn to tie knots, use the night sky and compasses to navigate, and identify natural objects.
Then join the Southeast Michigan Stewardship Coalition Scientific at the Whittaker branch April 20 for hands-on environmental activities ahead of Earth Day (April 22). Take home a pollinator-friendly plant.
Can’t make it to a program? Visit the family read page for resources teachers and families can use. You’ll find conversation starters, writing prompts from YpsiWrites, links to videos and activities, and a booklist for younger readers. Contact [email protected] for more information.
About the Book
It’s been fifty years since a sun shift wiped out nearly all mammal life across the earth.
10-year-old Elvie and her caretaker, Flora, a biologist, are the only two humans who can survive during daylight because Flora made an incredible discovery – a way to make an antidote to sun sickness using the scales from monarch butterfly wings. Unfortunately, it can only be made in small quantities and has a short shelf life.
Free to travel during the day, Elvie and Flora follow monarchs as they migrate across the former Western United States, constantly making new medicine for themselves while trying to find a way to make a vaccine they can share with everyone. Will they discover a way to go from a treatment to a cure and preserve what remains of humanity, or will their efforts be thwarted by disaster and the very people they are trying to save?