I have been fostering monarch caterpillars for over ten years and THIS is the book I've been waiting for! Sara Dykman has written a fascinating account of her over 10,000-mile solo bike journey along the migration path of the monarch butterfly from their winter home in Mexico up to Canada, and back again. An unusual journey, indeed, as well as an opportunity for her to share her knowledge and passion for these insects in schools, community centers, and in the homes of the kind people (sometimes strangers) who offer her a couch or bed for a night or two along the way. Dykman is a savvy traveler, a keen environmentalist, and an engaging writer who will win you over to her cause for the preservation of these beautiful, endangered insects. Adult and YA readers will love this book, and frankly, Dykman should write a kids' version too!

Thank you to NetGalley and Sara Dykman for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for and honest review.

This was a very interesting and appealing story about the author's journey. I loved her determination and sense of adventure. Saving the monarchs is indeed very important and I hope more people read this and take action.

“Surely if a butterfly with nothing more than instinct and orange wings could navigate three countries and the chaos of humanity, then I, with my stubborn will and a continent’s worth of hospitality, could too.”

If you have ever cared so much about accomplishing something, no matter how improbable success may be, Sara Dykman’s story will resonate. Dykman’s mission is to educate as many people as possible about the continuing threat to the monarch butterflies, their habitat, and ultimately, the world at large. She decided to bicycle from their winter location along their migratory flyway through the US and into Canada, then back again. Along the way, she represented the voice of the butterflies, telling their story to one school, one family, or one person at a time.

Along the way, she trusted her instincts, relied on the kindness of others, and followed the science. Challenges occurred yet Dykman persisted with determination and a strong sense of purpose.

Dykman cares deeply. Her feelings, whether anger or pleasure or something in-between, are palpable in her narration. Saving even one caterpillar from a mower did not require too much effort. Instead, it signaled her commitment. If one individual could change the course of extinction through sheer will, Dykman would succeed.

As you read this book, you realize this is not just a travel memoir based in science but also a model for persuasive outreach and education through personal connection and heartfelt storytelling.

As Dykman states, “humans keep taking, and wildlife keeps trying to make do.” Go ahead and read the book, then join your voice with the others. “Do it for the monarchs.”

Why you should not miss this one:
easy pace, easy reading
monarch facts are woven into context
whether you are a bicycling enthusiast or concerned about butterflies, the story is inspirational

Thanks to NetGalley, Timber Press Inc., and the author, Sara Dykman, for the opportunity to read a digital copy in exchange for this review.

#NetGalley #BicyclingwithButterflies #MonarchButterflies

Posted on Goodreads and on my blog.

I was unable to view this book. I tried both the download links. Both took me to my Overdrive app and a message that desired my version of Overdrive didn't support this download.
I checked ther Overdrive app got updates, but I have the latest. I'm using an android.

I didn't finish this book. The topic was super interesting to me, but for some reason I just couldn't find any motivation to keep reading.

Inspiring, fun and informative. The authors passion for the outdoors, biking and most of all the monarch butterfly forms the foundation for an adventure story like none other. An enjoyable and intriguing read, I couldn’t put this book down.

**I received an electronic ARC from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review of this book.

Field biologist Sara Dykman follows the monarch migration from Mexico to Canada and back on her bicycle. Clocking 10,210-miles, it’s an extraordinary pilgrimage of science, nature, and endurance.

While butterflies loop above, Sara labours on the road. She faces the nightly challenge of water and shelter. She is hosted by strangers, not all nice. She eats wild huckleberries, declines marriage, rescues a queen honeybee and her swarm, and rages at the corn monoscapes of Iowa.

Topics covered include the Monarch Watch waystation program, the diminishing American prairie, neurotoxic insecticides, the dangers of tropical milkweed, the parasite Ophryocystis elektroscirrha, monarch tagging, farmed butterflies, and how butterflies navigate.

Does that sound daunting? Don’t stop pedalling! The way Sara weaves the science into the physical adventure is the strength of the book. She makes the science interesting and palatable to the layman.

There’s plenty of emotion too. Sara loses her cool. She shows her anger at habitat destruction, bad decisions, and industrial mowers cutting down vegetation despite the presence of monarch eggs. She challenges the notion that 'composed apathy' is dignified while speaking the truth is considered unbecoming.

This is a heartfelt memoir combining road adventure and science, and while the writing of the roadtrip runs sometimes to diary, the science is fascinating, and the message loud and clear.

What an adventure! This is an inspiring and uplifting account by the author, who decides to make a 10,201 mile trip to follow the migration path of the monarch butterfly. This entails travelling through Mexico, the United States and Canada on her bicycle. She seems to grasp her quest with both hands, and explains her encounters, with both the butterflies and the people she meets, with real enthusiasm. She talks throughout the book of the need to protect the monarch butterfly and explains how they are losing their habitats and are at great risk of extinction. Thank you to Sara Dykman, Net Galley and Timber Press for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was given access to the eARC of this book thanks to the authors, the publisher, and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I loved the concept of Sara Dykman's non-fiction book of her 10,000+ mile bicycle journey following the migration of the Monarch butterflies. I mean, if that doesn't sound magical I don't know what does! Sadly, the writing fell short for me. Less science and more of Sara's along-the-way travel experience with the butterflies would have really built out the overarching story for me. Still, a very important message of protection.

2.5 - 3 stars

This nonfiction book follows the author on a solo bike tour following the monarch butterfly migration. She set out on this tour to help raise awareness about the problems the monarchs face. Dykman biked from the monarchs’ wintering grounds in Mexico to Canada and back. She gave presentations at schools and community centers along her route, teaching people how they can help the monarch butterflies.

I enjoyed this book. I was drawn to it because I enjoy cycling, but I can’t fathom such a long bike tour. I wanted to see what that would be like.

Dykman is obviously very passionate about conservation. I liked reading about how the book combines her passions with the practical matters of a long bike tour and scientific information. She does an excellent job presenting science and conservation information in an engaging way.

There are some points in the story where Dykman gets a little preachy about conservation, but it is one of her passions, so that could be excused. It’s not overwhelming, and I actually finished this book admiring her dedication to her cause.

This is a great book for teens and adults!

3.75 stars Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this ARC. Publishes April 13, 2021.

This is a nonfiction short story about a girl who followed the migration of Monarch butterflies from Mexico to Canada on a bicycle. Most of the book is sectioned off in chapters that run 3 to 4 days. It gives many facts of the Monarch, and their soon to be extinction, and also educates you to what it is like taking a 255 day, 10,201 mile trip alone, on a bicycle. If you love nature and the evolution of animals on our planet this is a very worthwhile book to read. Enjoyable.

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and Netgalley for allowing me to review a digital arc of this book. From the start, I was in awe of the author and her story. Thirty two years old, with courage for days, no smartphone and only paper maps.

The author was the first person to bicycle the entire monarch migration loop (and then some) – 10,201 miles and three countries. One of the main goals for the trip was to serve as a spokesperson for monarch butterflies and conservation truth teller. The journey was also a baring witness, in a new and intimate way, to the destruction of the habitats on which the monarchs’ survival, and ultimately, the survival of human life, depends.

I found deeply touching the moments Dykman spent having personal connections with creatures encountered along the path. In those passages, I found the invitation to look into the mirror Dykman was holding up, to show us how we can find ourselves in every living creature and become motivated to take action.

I marveled at the seamless writing and careful crafting of this book. The question in this book that stuck most with me was this: “How do we choose when and what to protect, sacrifice, or exploit? How do we choose, when the lives of both monarchs and humans are at stake?” (pg. 29). This question and the others Dykman contemplates, are presented in a way that seeks to shine light, hope, and show the enduring value of the actions we can all take together for the betterment of our planet.

The author follows the migration of the monarch butterfly solo on her bike - a kind of Tour de Monarchs - from Mexico, USA to Canada and back again.

Whilst the writing might not always be 4 star, the message certainly is. There is so much we can easily do with little or no effort to stop destroying the creatures of our planet, such as growing native plants or simply not mowing or paving over critical habitats, which might easily be our windowsills, verges or gardens. I was surprised by how difficult cycling can be with 200 mile detours needed because some US roads don't allow cyclists.
I also found her love for the other creatures she spots on her journey joyful and the (mostly) kindness of strangers.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and author for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book was interesting for the first half then got a little boring to be honest. I learned a lot interesting facts about monarchs !!
Butterflies are my favorite animal and I loved hearing the journey of a bicyclist chasing the monarchs! It overall had a good ending!

Very interesting tale of naturalist and cyclist Sara Dykman. She follows the migration of monarch butterflies from Mexico to Canada to Maine and back again on bicycle. She writes about the biology of the butterfly migration (yawn), the people she meets, and the adventures she has. I'd probably would have liked to see less biology and more adventure but the biology is important to survival of the monarch butterfly population.

Thank you to Netgalley for this ARC

Such an incredible bicycle trip, following the migrating monarchs. Her experiences were so incredibly beautiful, dark, sad, and bountiful, just as nature herself. I would love to follow in her footsteps, and felt as though I had after reading this beautiful book.!! Loved it!

A unique and fascinating memoir by nature educator/researcher Sara Dykman, as she travels the monarch butterfly’s migration route, bicycling 10,000 miles through three countries — the first to do so. What a glorious story and an urgent one, as the author advocates for protection of this magnificent threatened species and the fragile ecosystem that supports it.
 
4 of 5 Stars

Pub Date 13 Apr 2021
#BicyclingwithButterflies #NetGalley

Thanks to the author, Timber Press, and to NetGalley for the review copy. Opinions are mine.

This book is an incredible story of the author’s bicycle journey to follow the migrating Monarch butterflies. So many details were given. Of course, I learned a great deal about Monarch butterflies and their journey. But I also learned about the author, her motivation, the people she met along the way, and her experiences both good and bad. I felt as if I was on the road with her. I enjoyed this book very much.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!
It took me a little bit to get into this book--I liked it better once Dykman hit the road--but this was a great story of an amazing bicycle trip, with lots of information on monarchs and the people who care for them along the way. I enjoyed this very much!

In 2013, Sara Dykman and a friend conceived an ambitious plan: to follow, by bicyle, the annual migration of monarch butterflies from their Mexico wintering grounds to destinations up north. Three years later, she decided it was time to make the adventure of a lifetime a reality. As the biologist (no stranger to lengthy bicycle tours) prepared to travel from Mexico to Canada and back along the monarchs’ routes north in the spring and south when summer gave way to autumn, she knew this would not be an ordinary bike tour. Sara was doing it for the monarchs, promoting their conservation and that of milkweed, the only plants their caterpillars could use for food.

In the winter of 2017, the author waits in a forested mountain part of Mexico for signs that the monarchs are about to begin their journey. When they take flight, Sara mounts her bicycle—loaded with camping supplies and other necessities—and heads north. As she travels, the adventurer takes the opportunity to share her message. Spending the night in a variety of locations—camping sites in both suitable rural and urban locations, pre-arranged homes, and residences of locals offering a place to stay—Sara fills her days with presentations. Catering each talk to her audience, she describes the plight of monarchs as habitats fall victim to development and milkweed to mowing, details what people can do to positively change the situation, and provides a demonstration of her mode of travel. Along the way, Sara mourns the loss of wildlife to traffic and mishaps (and rescues many critters from roads) and milkweed plants mowed down from highway medians, golf courses, and impeccable lawns. And she celebrates the discovery of eggs, cocoons and monarch caterpillars chomping their way through milkweed leaves.

Author Sara Dykman’s first-person narrative of her remarkable trek is an eye-opening account of an even more extraordinary journey: the autumn flight of monarch butterflies to their overwintering grounds and their return north in the spring. Her description of her subjects’ awareness of changing seasons, navigational skills, and knowledge of appropriate egg-laying spots is a fascinating look at a system amazingly sophisticated for such a tiny creature.

The author’s account is peppered with events and encounters both memorable and humorous. Her story comes alive through descriptions of details of life on the trail: ensuring her tent will not flood when rain is on the horizon—and dealing with it when it happens, setting up camp in places as unlikely as a commercial parking lot, finding her own brand of “sandwiches” (ingredients eaten one after the other instead of combined between two pieces of bread) less time consuming to prepare after a long, exhausting day, and doing laundry in a shower stall.

Sarah Dykman’s fascinating account is spiced by passages that are sheer poetry:

One “can only dream of the millions of bison that once chomped, wandered, and produced the prairie under the gaze of visiting monarchs. Looking out at the broken scraps of what once was, my heart is broken, too.”

“Humans keep taking, and wildlife keeps trying to make do.”

All these elements combine to make the author’s story one readers will have a difficult time putting down until the satisfying conclusion. We, like Sarah Dykman, cannot help but be enamored by these tiny but amazing creatures and hope they have a future on our planet. Her journey is an enlightening learning experience for her even as she teaches others, and readers will discover truths about our world and its human and animal inhabitants. This book deserves a place alongside memorable and inspiring wildlife rehabilitation books like American Wolf by Nate Blakeslee and Eager by Ben Goldfarb. The author’s mission, to enlighten people of all ages and three countries about the creatures whose path she follows, makes Bicycling with Butterflies not her story, but the monarch’s.