The Bison and the Butterfly

“The Bison and the Butterfly” is a perfect book for Earth Day or any day you want to learn more about how ecosystems work. Bison is feeling lonely and is looking to make a new friend. As she tramples through the forest she meets a host of creatures that appreciate everything she does for them (even when she poops!). When Bison meets a lonely butterfly, she realizes she can help Butterfly learn the ways of the forest even though they explore it in very different ways.

Bison, it turns out, is from Europe. The reader learns at the back of the book that American Bison dwell primarily on the plains, but European Bison tend to live in the woodlands. The illustrations are in a lovely earth tone palette. This is a very gentle story about ecosystems and how they work.

Classroom considerations: This would be fun as a stimulus text when learning about ecosystems. Students could hear this story, then create their own with a local native species.

This book is great for kids who are interested in science and nature.

I received an advance review copy for free from NetGalley and Quarto Publishing Group, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

What a great story about making friends and how little things one animals does can help another animal.
I enjoyed seeing Bison interact with all the other animals and seeing how they helped each other.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC.

This is a delightful and unique story about friendship with breathtaking illustrations! As an adult, I was touched by the sentiment that each friendship we have serves a unique function in our lives. Kids will learn this lesson as well as a lesson on our ecosystem and the ways we help each other out without even realizing it!
This book earns 5 glowing stars and a permanent place on our family’s bookshelf!

Wow! A butterfly and a bison the two most unlikely friends turned into such a great informational tale!
As a teacher, I look for so many ways to bring nonfiction to them in a fiction way and this does it perfectly! I love that it honed in on how one species helps the many. That is a concept that so many of my students struggle with and I think showing them a book that is playful yet informative will help them make those connections better.

Things I loved:
1. The illustrations! - The illustrations are bright and colorful. This immediately attracted my attention so I know it will do the same for little readers!

2. The everyone helps each other aspect. - I loved learning how the bison helps not only from what we know with humans in the past, but how they help their woodlands environment.

3. The conservation! - I loved that at the back of the book it shows readers the differences between the European Buffalo and the American Bison. I had no idea about a lot of that! Not only that, but there is a how to help bring back the bison population and why it’s so important to that ecosystem.

All in all, this book has my stamp of approval for little readers and classrooms!

Our little Bison needs a friend, what lessons will she encounter along the way?

I’m always excited to find new and beautiful books to read to my little and this one meets those categories. I’m always drawn to the adorable nature themed books that also provide simple life lessons. This one is about a bison who is looking for a friend and encounters several other critters and animals of the forest who share how they all help each other out in one way or another. A simple lesson of how our actions have cause and effect that can benefit others, small little acts that you may not think have much impact can have impact on others. M

I did have a little giggle at the dung beetle part as it took me by surprise but it does make sense plus, everybody poops!

Thank you NetGalley and Quatro Publishing Group for giving me the opportunity to review this delightful book.

Absolutely gorgeous tale about friendship and how you can find friends in unlikely places. The story filled me with joy as I read and saw the different ways Bison was helping other creatures by just being herself. Thanks to the author, publisher and netgalley for providing this opportunity to read

A cute story about a bison that feels lonely making friends with a butterfly. The butterfly is able to take the bison on an adventure and then back to his herd. The illustrations were delightful. I liked at the end how it talked about brining back the bison and the wildlife trust.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this ARC.

Taylor Swifts new album on repeat, reading the boys some new kids books I got advanced copies of, and the sun is shining….a happy Friday in my book! ☀️📚🎶

These books were so cute! I can’t wait to show my daughter the bug book as she’s been really interested in ladybugs lately. The Happy Stories for Animal Lovers was absolutely adorable! It was full of such beautiful illustrations and fun facts about animals. The Pond and the Park was a really adorable story about friendships. Respect the Insect book was very interesting to my son who has been hesitant with flies coming inside. Hee hee. He always really enjoyed Little People Big Dreams about Stan Lee and comics. My daughter is going to love Gabriel’s Toothfairy Tale as she’s been waiting anxiously for her tooth to fall out. Torla and Smorla was a really cute book my younger song loved. The Bison and the Butterfly was precious! Add these books to your kids summer TBR lists for summer reading programs. Thank you @netgalley for these advance copies!

The Bison and the Butterly by Alice Hemming comes out August 5

Happy Stories for Animal Lovers by Leisa-Stewart Sharpe comes out July 1

Little People Big Dreams Stan Lee by Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara comes out July 1

Gabriel’s Tooth Fairy Tale by Sharon Leya comes out February 27

The Children’s Book of Wildlife Watching by Dan Rouse comes out May 13

Torla and Smorla and the Lower Than Average Cloud by Kes Gray comes out July 8

The Pond and the Park by Flo Fielding comes out May 13

Respect the Insect by Jules Howard comes out July 8

This story is just delightful. It is creatively written with good vocabulary and a solid plot, accompanied by beautiful illustrations. It has a positive underlying message and is educational. I love the additional supporting information at the end to invite further conversation. Would highly recommend!

A sweet book about the importance of friendship and the need to empower our differences. Text is easy and clear to read and the illustrations are beautiful and whimsical - they remind me slightly of The Gruffalo. A great lesson on the power of community.

Many thanks to the author, publisher and Netgalley for providing an ARC of this book in exchange for an unbiased review.

I love this very sweet story about friendship! It's very cute, and the drawings complete the story. I love how the text and fonts that are used vary, which makes it a little more playful for children to read. It's really well done and I highly recommend it!

What a cute and clever book! A beautiful way to describe interdependence between animals and ecosystems to young kids. The art is beautiful, as well. My kids loved it!

The Bison and the Butterfly is an adorable story about friendship and how we can help each other. The illustrations are soft and beautiful, and the story itself is wonderful. The author includes a section in the back of the book that has a bunch of information about bison's, so you not only get a great story, but you learn something too. I know our littlest library patrons would love this book, but I believe the adults would enjoy it just as much. I would recommend it to everyone.

Absolutely adorable from the art to the sweet story of the lonely bison realizing how much she means to the ecosystem. This would make a great text for Earth Day and would be the perfect read for students going on a field trip to observe bison at the zoo or a refuge. Would purchase for an elementary library or classroom for a read aloud or anchor text.

I loved the way this book brought attention to bison and the roles they play in their habitats! It taught about many symbiotic relationships between bisons and other animals. Loved the theme of loneliness, friendship, and working together weaved throughout the story! And the illustrations were beautiful too!

What a sweet story about friendship and the beauty of creation. The Bison in this story is so relatable to all of us, and I will definitely be using this book in my classroom when it releases in August. Adorable illustrations, Highly recommend!!

This was adorable and a lot of my fun! I downloaded while I had my neice, and she loved it! I think it's has a great message about how you never how your everday things help the world around you. There are also some fun Bison facts at the back of this book. I can't for this one to be released and I can add it to her growing library!

This was a very informative book with lovely illustrations to accompany each page. I do think it's aimed at an older audience than I was expecting, but I enjoyed it very much.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with this book for free in exchange for my review! All opinions are my own.

So this is a wonderful combination of science and story, and I think you could read aloud and omit some of it for younger kids, while older kids would like the detail. The illustrations are lovely, and it really is such a great book! I'm hoping I start to see this in park bookstores and such!

A sweet book for kids about the connections among species with a European bison as the keystone species main character.

I loved the illustrations and story showing a bison as she interacts with various creatures- a woodpecker, a dung beetle, a lizard, and a butterfly- who share with her how her behaviors help them to find food and shelter. The ending pages explain the differences between European bison and American bison and show some photographs of bison.

I recommend this to anyone who wants to help kids begin to see how species benefit one another and to learn more about bison in particular.

This is a very sweet story! The illustrations compliment the narrative, the book is easy to follow yet very meaningful. It's a great way to introduce younger children to the concept of individual impact on a community. I also liked that there's is additional information included at the end.

This story was wonderful. It is about a bison looking for friendship. I loved the aspect of finding friends while being yourself even when it is the simplest things. I do think this book sets a great example for kids. I loved the drawings, the information we get throughout the book and the ending was just adorable.

Thanks to NetGalley for a copy of this book.

This is the perfect book to learn about ecosystems and cooperation. How each action can affect others and some animals depend on this perfect balance to survive, like the dung beetle. In the end, the little bison realizes that he is not alone. A book of community and nature. The illustrations are very sweet and joyful. Perfect for exploring in the classroom or by educators.
Thank you publisher for this e-arc.

A gorgeous story that encourages children to not be fearful of making friends, loved the educational tone about the choice of the lead character as a bison. Was an engaging and informative read.

Ecosystem is a big word for kids, however this picture book gives a clear and straightforward explanation as to what it means. How animals are linked and affect one another is interesting to discover, and this cute story is a great way to learn more on this topic.
The copy is children friendly and the drawings are lovely.

This is a lovely children's storybook with a lot of great themes woven throughout - the predominant one being friendship. The story of the importance of friends and making friends is a good one for children of all ages. I loved that this story also demonstrated how the ecosystem is woven together - with the Bison's seemingly unimportant activities actually impacting other creatures in the ecosystem and providing them with benefits. That underlying theme of impacting others in our ecosystem is important - and depending on each other. I also enjoyed the tie-back at the end to real bison and their impacts on nature today.

Also, the illustrations in this book are gorgeous. I'd imagine that they would be engaging for children as they're reading the book - they're very detailed and support the text that is contained on each page. Overall, a great children's story to have on any shelf. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC to read and review!

I want to extend my thanks to Quarto Publishing Group-Ivy Kids for generously sending me a copy of this book for review.

The book tells a heartwarming story that my child truly enjoyed, centered around the theme of friendship. Not only was it entertaining, but it also provided valuable information about Bison, which I know my child will eagerly share with me in the days ahead.

The illustrations in the book are engaging and fun, with a particular highlight being the final pages that beautifully depict the distinctions and commonalities between American and European Bison.

This a great story for children that follows a bison through the forest as they look to find a friend. It is an easy storyline for children to follow and the illustrations are adorable. The nonfiction information about bison at the end of the story is great for connecting the story to the real world. I would recommend this book for kids.

The lonely Bison goes about his day and learns that many other species flourish because of his normal habits. We learn about ecological dependence and how these animals have been resurrected from near extinction and the environment enriched by their return.
The illustrations by Nancy Leschnikoff are fun, simple, brilliantly diverse, and delightful.
Well suited for reading WITH someone of any age including ESL, and great for gifting to anyone aged 6-106, but especially to a school, church library, or your local public library!
I requested and received a free temporary e-book on Adobe Digital Editions from Quarto Publishing Group – Ivy Kids | Ivy Kids Eco via NetGalley. Thank you! Expected publication Aug 06, 2024.
@QuartoKids @CBCBook #Ivy Kids Eco #KentWildlifeTrust #ecosystem #BisonAndBuffalo

This charming book tells the story of a Bison who travels through the forest looking for a friend while learning about how she can affect others around her. I loved the themes of friendship and conservation in this well written story!

This was a cute story with a great message and adorable animation style. My little one really enjoyed it!

Adorable illustrations make this sweet tale of a lonely Bison, who thought himself too hairy and clumsy to be anyone's friend, come alive as we find him making friends throughout his day -- a woodpecker, a dung beetle, a lizard, a butterfly. He learns how he positively impacts each one in this compelling story of ecosystems and bison rewilding. A highly recommended environmental tale for readers ages 3-7 years.

I found it very hard to rate children's books so everything is a 5 star read for me!!
I really loved this book, the illustrations are so beautiful and captivating that I found myself smiling through every page I read.
The story itself is very beaitiful and inspiring <3

This was a sweet tale. The art was interesting to look at.
What I found most enjoyable was the internal dialogue!

What an interesting and fun story! The Bison and the Butterfly is an eye opener for its readers of all ages.
It explains the relationship between animals and the ecosystems.

The illustrations are pretty and keep the suspens moving during the whole story.

It’s an educative book about the reality and the impact of every animal on the ecosystems everywhere.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, the author and illustrator for this ARC.

What a sweet tale of friendship and nature!! In this story, the Bison meets lots of different friends in the forest - a woodpecker, a dung beetle, a lizard and a butterfly.

The story focuses on themes of making new friends and science/ecosystems. Symbiosis is portrayed between the bison and the woodpecker, as the bison strips bark from trees which attract bugs for the woodpecker to eat.

This would be a great story for children who are just about to start kindergarten or school, who may be feeling anxious about making new friends!

There is information at the back of the book about the two different types of Bison - American and European and Information on bringing the Bison back as they are an important keystone species.

If that hasn't sold you, then it's worth picking up for the illustrations alone! They are beautiful 😍

A very lovely picture book 🥰

The Bison and the Butterfly is a is a charming and heartwarming story about Bison, who sets out in the forest one day to try to make some friends.

It features heartfelt messages about the impact we have on those around us, finding friends, and the importance of kindness and empathy. The prose had a beautiful rhythm when we read out loud, and I loved the way it reflected Bison's emotional experience and her self talk. The author did a great job of integrating the story with the information at the end of the book about bison and their ecosystem, which made a helpful conversation started about the importance of protecting our wildlife and conservation efforts.

The illustrations perfectly captured the furry, feathery, scaly and hairy creatures in such an expressive way. We particularly loved the close ups of the faces, especially the conversation between Bison and Dung Beetle.

Thank you Quarto Publishing Group and NetGalley for a copy of this book. Opinions expressed are my own.

This was so cute!! I loved this cute little journey of the bison looking for a new friend and discovering the meaning of friendship and her own self-worth! Plus she gets a wonderful new friend out of it! And what a great way to introduce children to the concept of how important a single animal's role in the ecosystem can be and the way instinctive behaviors benefit other creatures!

What worked for me:
- The illustrations were gorgeous! I loved the soft, but vibrant colors and the textures of the illustration.
- The story text was excellent! Just the right amount of text on each page, with little splashes of different font sizes and styles to keep things dynamic.
- The story itself was so cute and well done! It really illustrated the symbiotic role of animals in their ecosystems without being too "preachy" about it! And the way it was presented also allows room for other interpretations of the Bison's search for friendship that can be applied to the day-to-day lives of young readers.

What didn't work for me:
- Nothing! I really loved this book.

(A big thank you to NetGalley and the author for providing a copy in exchange for an honest review! ♥)

I admit I'm just a huge sap, but this made me tear up! Poor Bison realizes she doesn't have any friends and thinks she doesn't have anything special to offer. But through the help of the many friends she makes as she goes about her daily activities, Bison discovers she contributes much more than she realizes. This is an adorable story (with beautiful artwork!) and a timeless message that can resonate with anyone.

What a sweet and lovely book that not only highlights the importance of friendship but also exemplifies the importance of bison as a species, in a way that children can understand. The illustrations were adorable and expressive.

STOP, THIS IS SO CUTE.

A sad lonely bison is looking for a friend to share the beautiful art of rubbing against trees and peeling wood. Instead she finds other friends who, although they don't share her same passion, let her know about the impact she causes on their lives.

What a beautiful story this was! I love the fact that it is based on a project which consists of the protection of the environment and the conservation of bison. I personally had no idea about this problem, and I am glad to know now how important bison are.

Thank you so much NetGalley and publisher for the ARC :)

I'd like to thank the publisher for this eARC.
I read this book to my toddler tonight, and we goth really enjoyed reading about Bison's journey through the woodland to make new friends. I loved that this book was informative but also played to the idea that you can make friends anywhere. The illustrations were perfect for this book. My daughter loved pointing out the different things she could name. I especially liked the fact portion at the end of the book, with the real photographs of what Bison look like.

Absolutely adorable! This is such a heartwarming story teaching little to embrace their uniqueness. Read it to my little and he loved everything about it. The cover and illustration is so adorable and will definitely be purchasing a hard copy for my family!

As a child, and even as an adult, it’s sometimes hard to find friends and see the positivity in those around us. The Bison and the Butterfly did such a great job of capturing both of those in this book. It teachers children that being different is what makes us unique, we should never be ashamed of our individuality and every single person deserves to have the bond of friendship. I also love how the author gives facts about the ecosystem. So while this book is cute and has a beautiful message, it’s also a learning experience.

This story is adorable. I love how it shows children how everything is connected in life. It shows how sometimes we can do small actions that affect others- sometimes in a positive way we don’t even realise.

'The Bison and the Butterfly' is a story about how a lonely bison finds a friend. She learns how incredibly valuable she is to others in her habitat. Bison stands by her herd, but is unhappy. She needed a friend.

Bison eats bark from sweet chestnut trees.

Bison heard a...

PECK,

PECK,

PECK, it's a woodpecker.

Woodpecker explains how Bison's bark stripping feeds him. It provides larvae from trees that woodpeckers love.

The woodpecker cannot be Bison's friend at the moment due to his busy schedule.

A bison continues to roam.

Bison has to go poo.

SPLAT!

Dung Beetle nearby is so happy. Grazing on bison dung provides Beetle with food and a place to lay eggs.

Bison asks Dung Beetle if she wants to trample through the woods with her.

Dung Beetle is too busy.

Bison meets a lizard, admires her reflection in the water, and then...

Bison meets a BUTTERFLY and everything changes.

The end of the story is wonderful.

There is a two-page section at the end of the book entitled "The real Bison and the Butterfly..." This section discusses the differences between the American bison and the European bison. Furthermore, it discusses how bison benefit other animals.

In the final two pages, there are photos of actual bison and an article entitled "Bringing back the bison." Additionally, a QR code can be scanned to download an activity pack and learn more.

I found this book to be both informative and educational. It has amazing illustrations. This is a book that I would recommend.