Four Wings and a Prayer: Caught in the Mystery of the Monarch Butterfly

by Sue Halpern

Book Overview

Every autumn, the monarch butterflies east of the Rockies migrate from as far north as Canada to Mexico. Memory is not their guide -- no one butterfly makes the round trip -- but each year somehow... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 037540208X
• ISBN13: 9780375402081
• Release Date: May 2001
• Publisher: Pantheon Books
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.98 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.7" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

The Gifts of the Monarch Butterfly

This wonderful little book has opened my eyes to so much more than I ever expected. I have just returned from Mexico and the Monarchs. Sue Halpern's book was like my road map into this magical, mystical and transformational experience

Caught up in the Mystery; Review from an Oklahoma State University Student

I liked this book because of the facts it includes and the connections it makes between science and human feelings. Over the ages many people have been amazed by the monarch butterfly's migration every year; however very few are interested enough to understand their complexity. Sue Halpern is one of the few who is interested enough to attempt to solve the mystery. In her book Four Wings and a Prayer: Caught in the Mystery of the Monarch Butterfly she reports her findings, in a fast-paced interesting research narrative. Halpern gives the reader a plethora of information while telling her story of how she became fascinated with the Monarch Butterfly. Even though she was not a biologist, the story she told of her adventures was chronologically organized and seemed like a field journal that a biologist would have written. Her field journal (the book), was filled with scientific facts, interviews, personal experiences, and the special feature of maps to trace the monarch migration. In addition to facts, she pours out her feelings about the issue of conserving the monarchs and the importance of their survival. Connecting human feelings to science is one of the strong points of Mrs. Halpern's writing. This is one of the strongest points of the book. Another related point that Halpern makes is that passion and science lay hand in hand. Halpern reminisces, "As a child I collected rocks. . . I did remember the single mindedness through which I picked through the woods behind my house, and the pure joy of finding something . . . It seemed reasonable to call this passion, and to think of myself - and everyone else - as a collection of passions" (9). This is one of many of the comparisons Halpern makes between passion and science. Passion plays an important role in the world of science because it drives scientists to continue looking, just like Halpern continued to look for her rocks. This book is strong in communicating the connection between science and human feelings. I hope this review was helpful to you in choosing a book.

it soars

Halpern has the precision of a scientist, the grace of a poet, and the passion of someone truly informed and alarmed by humanity's headlong tilt against the beauty and variety of our natural world. Never shying away from the complexities of her subject--scientists and nature-lovers from a rich and profligate country demanding preservation sacrifices from the peasants of a poor one--she writes a seamless, and ultimately very moving, tale of wonder.

Magical, Poetic, Lyrical breathtaking

Sue Halpern has a gift of composition to describe the wonder of the Monarch Butterly that practically takes your breath away. The book begins with her journey with a butterfly tracker real life "Indiana Jones" character as they drive to the butterfly preserves in Mexico. Her description of her first visit there which happened earlier with her tiny daughter and the truly awesome, almost religious experience of the sound of millions of butterflies rustling wings and of butterflies alighting on her daughter walking up her arm, the child watching without fear takes you into this book like a lover invites you to be with her. This is a book for all ages, and will be a standard to invite readers to the mysteries and beauty of nature. It is also hoped that the book serves to help advocacy to preserve this miracle of nature which is taken foregranted by so many. Sue Halpern is a writer in the same pantheon as Barry Lopez and Farley Mowat in her research skills, her love of nature and her literary abilities.