The Butterfly Club Read online

  ‘And dandelions and nettles – they like them too. I found them for nothing,’ said Selma. ‘We’re the Butterfly Club, Tina and me. Just us!’

  ‘And there are all the butterflies, flying around your garden,’ said Ruby.

  ‘There are the real butterflies – a peacock, a red admiral, a brimstone, an Adonis blue – although that’s cheating because our garden isn’t chalky enough – and these here are paper butterflies. Selma tied them to the bushes to cheer me up when the real butterflies took a long time coming,’ I said.

  ‘Well, I think it’s absolutely beautiful,’ said Ruby. ‘I’m going to try to make a butterfly garden too.’

  She looked at the camera. ‘Why don’t you ask a grown-up if you can make a little patch of garden specially for butterflies! If you go to the Ruby Red website you’ll find a list of all the plants that butterflies particularly like. It’s time to say goodbye now. Wave goodbye to everyone, Tina and Selma and Phil and Maddie. Goodbye, goodbye!’

  ‘Goodbye!’ we all chorused, and we waved too.

  ‘Keep waving!’ Ruby muttered, so we waved and waved.

  ‘There!’ she said at last. ‘Well done!’

  ‘That was brilliant!’ said Garnet. ‘You were all absolutely perfect. I’m so proud of you all. Didn’t they do well, Mrs Maynard? Especially Tina!’

  ‘You spoke up beautifully, darling! Who would ever have thought it?’ said Mum.

  ‘She’s a natural,’ said Ruby. ‘Don’t you think so, Garnet?’

  ‘I certainly do,’ said Garnet. ‘Perhaps you’ll be a television star one day, Tina! Would you like that?’

  They were so kind to me, but perhaps they didn’t really mean it. And I don’t really want to be a television star when I’m older. I want to study butterflies.

  When we’re grown up Phil and Maddie and I want to live in the same house together so we can still be Phil and Maddie and me. If we all earn lots of money, perhaps it can be quite a big house with four bedrooms. Then we can be Phil and Maddie and me – and Selma.

  Take Tina’s Test!

  Now that you’ve read Tina’s story, test yourself! How many of these questions can you answer?

  1. Who gave Tina her precious doll, Baby?

  2. Can you name the sisters’ hamsters, which they buy with their birthday money from Grandad?

  3. Selma nicknames Tina ‘Little Bug’. What nickname does she give to Phil and Maddie, which Tina thinks is very unfair?

  4. Selma scribbles out a drawing that Tina is very proud of – what is it?

  5. When Gran and Grandad take the girls to the zoo, what does Tina say is her favourite butterfly?

  6. How many spellings does Miss Lovejoy ask Tina to learn for her spelling challenge?

  7. Miss Lovejoy tells Tina that she is planning a trip to an exciting faraway destination, and Tina draws her a picture of that place as a present – where is it?

  8. When Tina visits Selma’s home, what do they eat?

  9. What’s the first real butterfly to visit Tina and Selma’s butterfly garden?

  10. Ruby Red and her sister Garnet appeared in another brilliant book by Jacqueline Wilson! Can you name it?

  1. Gran 2. Nibbles, Speedy, Cheesepuff 3. Dim Twin 4. A caterpillar 5. A postman butterfly 6. Fifty 7. Japan 8. Pizza, dough balls, cookie-dough ice cream, and Coke to drink 9. A peacock butterfly 10. Double Act

  The Life Cycle of a Butterfly

  Tina and the rest of Miss Lovejoy’s class learn all about the life cycle of butterflies. How much do you know about them, and the different stages of their lives?

  STAGE ONE: THE EGG

  The butterfly lays her eggs on a leaf or a stem, where they will stick, so that they won’t blow off in the wind or rain. These eggs can be round, oval or even cylindrical, depending on what kind of butterfly laid them. If you were able to look very closely at an egg, you might actually be able to see the tiny caterpillar growing inside it!

  STAGE TWO: THE CATERPILLAR

  These are also known as ‘larvae’, and are often patterned with stripes. Caterpillars are very tiny when they first hatch, but grow quickly.

  The most important thing a caterpillar can do is eat! In fact, the first thing a new caterpillar will do when it emerges is munch through the leaf it was born on. You might have seen caterpillars chomping through leaves in your garden!

  STAGE THREE: THE CHRYSALIS

  Another name for this is the ‘pupa’. This is where the caterpillar spins a cocoon around itself made from a very special silk. Once inside this cocoon, the caterpillar transforms into the very final stage of its life cycle.

  STAGE FOUR: THE BEAUTIFUL BUTTERFLY!

  If you’re ever lucky enough to see a brand-new butterfly emerging from its cocoon, you will notice that it doesn’t open up its wings immediately. This is because they have been wrapped tightly against its body for so long, and need to open up slowly so that blood can flow into them. But within a few hours, a butterfly will start to flap its wings and fly. Then it’s time for the butterfly to look for a mate – and the cycle will start all over again!

  All About Butterflies!

  If, like Tina, you’d like to know more about butterflies, here are a few interesting facts to get you started:

  Butterflies have taste receptors on a very unusual part of their body . . . their feet!

  No one knows for sure how many different types of butterfly there are in the world, but it’s thought to be as many as 20,000.

  The smallest butterfly is just an eighth of an inch long – that’s this tiny:

  The longest is around 12 inches long. That’s twice the width of this book!

  Pictures of butterflies were found in ancient Egyptian wall paintings that are over 3,000 years old. Butterflies have been around for a long, long time!

  Butterflies actually have their skeletons on the outside of their bodies. This is called an exoskeleton, and it protects the most fragile parts of the butterfly.

  Monarch butterflies are known to migrate thousands of miles every winter, heading for warmer climates.

  The Italian word for butterfly is ‘farfalla’ – which is also the word for a bow-tie, and a type of pasta that has a very similar shape.

  Butterflies have some of the prettiest names in the natural world. Phil, Maddie and Tina pick the emerald swallowtail, the blue Adonis, and the postman as their special favourites, but some others you might like to look up are the silver-spotted skipper, the mountain ringlet, the clouded yellow, the purple emperor, the American painted lady, the geranium bronze and the crimson rose.

  Create Your Own Butterfly Garden

  If you feel inspired to build your own butterfly garden like Tina and Selma, here are a few tips to get you started. Remember to ask a parent or teacher for permission and help.

  First of all, pick a corner of your garden or school playing field that is sheltered from the wind. Butterflies are delicate creatures with fragile wings that can tear in strong wind, so an area surrounded by a fence or hedge is a good idea. If you can, try to avoid somewhere that might be popular with cats and dogs too!

  Start with a layer of good quality soil, well-raked. Then it’s time to start planting!

  The most important thing in a butterfly garden is – flowers! And the wider the variety of flowers, the better. Flowers produce nectar, which is food for butterflies, and different types of butterflies are attracted to different types of nectar – so the more different kinds of flowers you make available, the more butterflies you’ll see fluttering around your garden.

  Try to pick plants and flowers that will bloom at different times throughout the year. This will ensure that your butterflies will always have food, no matter the season. It’s especially important that there are lots of flowers blooming during the summer months, as that’s when butterflies are usually most active.

  Aster, purple coneflowers, milkweed (sometimes known as butterfly weed!) and lilac will supply nectar for several years – these are called ‘perennials’