by Christine Van Zandt

Those early, shut-in days of the pandemic fostered my upcoming picture book, MILKWEED FOR MONARCHS (Beaming Books, 2024). With everyone at home, we escaped to—I mean, we appreciated—our garden a bit more. Flowers and foliage. Bugs and birds. Bare patches calling out for some attention. So, off to the garden center where an “attracts butterflies” sign led us to buy our first milkweed plant. Why not?

Days later, we noticed our milkweed had critters crawling on it. Twenty-seven to be exact. Little caterpillars that would grow into monarch butterflies. We watched as they devoured leaves, buds, even stems. Their escapades, a fun distraction. Counting caterpillars became part of our daily routine.

Then, one morning, all were gone!

I Googled and discovered this wasn’t supposed to happen. Toxins in the milkweed plant made the caterpillars taste bad and their bold stripes warned-off predators. (Apparently no one told our local birds and raccoons.)

Without the constant crunching, the milkweed leafed out, bloomed, and a female monarch butterfly found it. The baby-factory was back in business! We learned that monarchs need milkweed—it’s the only plant their caterpillars can eat.

Once our eggs hatched, there were a lot of very hungry caterpillars. (Eric Carle knew what he was talking about.) Back to the garden center for more milkweed. Before long, some caterpillars made chrysalises, then, weeks later, launched into gorgeous butterflies reminding me of my childhood.

Growing up in northern California, winters brought magical moments of seeing coastal trees blanketed with western monarch butterflies. While the eastern monarch population that overwinters mainly in Mexico has suffered declines, the western monarch has been classified as an endangered species. In 2021, fewer than 2,000 of these butterflies were counted overwintering in California. Their numbers were once in the millions.

At-home pesticide use is a major factor. Gardeners want big blooms and perfect greenery, but spraying or applying systemic pesticides means we’re killing all kinds of insects and disrupting the food chain. Habitat destruction and climate change also take a toll.

While I watched the butterfly life cycle, I wrote about it, workshopping my manuscript with critique partners. My writing was trial and error: fiction, nonfiction, prose, verse. I read every book I could find about butterflies, and began volunteering for Xerces to gain insight into insects. Then back to revisions.

The manuscript that fluttered to the top was a rhyming poem supported by facts. Spare, lyrical text shows a mama monarch returning from overwintering. We follow one egg on its journey to becoming a butterfly. This engaging read-aloud also has STEM information and fun interactive questions to support classroom or at-home learning.

My first nonfiction picture book, A BRIEF HISTORY OF UNDERPANTS, sold to Quarto Kids unagented (via a Twitter pitch party) and published around the same time that the manuscript for MILKWEED FOR MONARCHS won several top awards through SCBWI. Soon after, I received an offer for representation from the amazing Liza Fleissig at the Liza Royce Agency.

In a whirlwind, Liza sold my manuscript to Beaming Books. Working with their Senior Acquisitions Editor, Andrea Hall, has been a dream. She understood my concern but also my hopefulness and she created a beautiful book. Here’s a first look at the gorgeous cover created by illustrator extraordinaire, Alejandra Barajas!

MILKWEED FOR MONARCHS is now available for preorder, for a February 6, 2024 release.

In closing, I’d like to give a big thank-you shout-out to Tara! I appreciate all Tara does for our industry and how her successful books have shown the world that funny female kid’s lit writers really do exist.

Images provided by Christine Van Zandt and Beaming Books.

Christine is giving away a 60-minute manuscript critique of the first 750 words of your book (adult or kid’s, fiction or nonfiction, prose or verse) or a picture book with 750 words or fewer. (No art please.)

Leave one comment below to enter. A random winner will be selected in September!

Good luck!

Christine Van Zandt is a freelance editor who loves helping other writers realize their dreams of getting their books published. A small-business owner, she founded her company, Write for Success Editing Services, in 2009.

MILKWEED FOR MONARCHS is Christine’s second nonfiction picture book. She lives in Los Angeles with her family and pets. Find out more at ChristineVanZandt.com.