A story about a miraculous journey and inspiring the next generation
Mirabella the Monarch’s Magical Migration
Synopsis: Every year the monarch butterflies undertake the most amazing migration on Earth. Over the course of four generations, they travel from Canada to Mexico and back. This is an educational story about their challenging journey and the inspirational story of how one generation can inspire the next to make the world a better place.
More ways to order
- Order at your favorite local bookstore. I recommend Bookshop.org. They donate 100% of the profits back to your favorite local bookstore.
- Order at your local library. Try Hoopla to get the e-book from your library. It’s free.
- Order on Amazon. This is a great option if you would like to leave a review and help the book find an audience.
- More e-book options.
- Add to your Goodreads list.
- Even more ways to order.
Part of the Make-A-Book Project
This book was part of the Make-A-Book Project. The books are meant to be inspirational, educational and entertaining. The stories are written by Scott and illustrated by elementary students and jam-packed with fun surprises and suggested activities. The black and white pages leave plenty of room so children can add their own drawings and colors.
Update: We donated over 559 books (and counting) to students, teachers, schools and libraries. And we had dozens of extra-curricular activities, like the Glow Show.
- Read about the Make-A-Book Project.
- Read about the step-by-step creation of this book.
More about this book: This children’s chapter book is full of rich, conceptual drawings that complement a story that grew and grew as the students continued to inspire me to write new pages to match their wonderful drawings. It is a particularly important book, I’m glad to see that being green is a topic that finally has finally reached critical mass in the mainstream consciousness. And Mirabella the Monarch illustrates many subjects from metamorphosis to migration to a passion for making the world a better place. The book also includes a page of challenges to help kids find hidden surprises in the story.
The mission of the Montessori schools is: “Montessori is a method of education that is based on self-directed activity, hands-on learning and collaborative play. In Montessori classrooms, children make creative choices in their learning, while the classroom and the teacher offer age-appropriate activities to guide the process.” Therefore this project gave the students the opportunity to apply these principles to their learning and everyday life—literally creating a dream and turning it into a reality. This project also sowed a lot of collateral creations, such as: a place and character naming contest, butterfly gardens, musical theme songs for the characters in the book, the class photo pictured above, an illustrator book signing, reading month, mosaic tile wall, Glow Show black light art display, and best of all a giant book celebration where the student illustrators signed their page for all the staff, students and community members. It was incredible.
Here is a short slideshow about the project at Parker Woods Montesorri by art teacher Suzanne Nall. It was used to introduce the project parents.
Inspirational, Educational and Entertaining
Every book in the Make-A-Book project has three main themes. First, they are meant to inspire students. Second, they educate students, so students can put their inspiration into action. And third, they are entertaining, which serves as a hook to get the students involved. You can see these themes in the pages below.
See all the Project Updates.
More ways to order
- Order at your favorite local bookstore. I recommend Bookshop.org. They donate 100% of the profits back to your favorite local bookstore.
- Order at your local library. Try Hoopla to get the e-book from your library. It’s free.
- Order on Amazon. This is a great option if you would like to leave a review and help the book find an audience.
- More e-book options.
- Add to your Goodreads list.
- Even more ways to order.
Author: Scott Stoll
Publisher: TheArgonauts
Format: Paperback and e-book. 108 Pages.
Age group: 5–12+
Publication: Anniversary edition © 05-11-2017
ISBN-13: 978-0982784266
Language: English
Acknowledgments
Thanks to the 559 students and their parents. Thanks to the staff of Parker Woods Montessori; in particular, principal Whitney Simmons for her commitment to educating not only students but staff and parents, the art teacher Suzanne Nall for her artistic vision that is apparent in every illustration, PTO member and project coordinator Nuria Lopez, who’s desire to make the world a better place for our children fueled every step, dedicated parent Allyson Stone-Weil for the bookmarks and helping whenever needed, teacher Beth Schlick for organizing the celebration events, Jodi Weber for writing the grant and photos by teacher and lepidopterist Judy Ganance. Finally, thanks to the dozens of other volunteers who supported the project at each step. Hopefully, I honored everyone along the way.
