Maretha at Fauna Park Tales

My Review – Amazing Matilda

I spent a pleasant Saturday morning with my grandchildren while we had opportunity to listen to  a reading of “Amazing Matilda” by Bette Stevens.  In the end we downloaded the eBook as well.  I can really recommend this little gem, not just for younger readers, but even older ones like myself who care about the natural world around us and love to explore this world by means of stories such as this.

Amazing Matilda (Children's Literature): The Tale of A Monarch Butterfly by [Stevens, Bette A.]

Here  follows our review:

A Feel Good Story

By MarethMBotha

15 Oct. 2016

Format: Paperback

“This Saturday morning my grandchildren and I listened to the reading of “Amazing Matilda” by Blossom. We enjoyed the story very much. My granddaughter (10 years old) said, ‘I like the alliterations and the lesson that you can do anything if you have patience to follow your dreams. If you give her four-and-half stars, which is about 95%, it’ll be good.’ And my grandson (7 years old) said, ‘I like the giant words like metamorphosis and the characters in your book. Fortunately the Monarch is poisonous and the sparrow didn’t eat Matilda. I liked when Matilda got her wings and I give her four-and-half stars, and I want to buy the book.’
So for now , I’ve downloaded “Amazing Matilda” – such an inspiring little story. Thanks for writing and illustrating this story, making young and old aware of butterflies.”
Bette A. Stevens

Biography

Bette A. Stevens is a retired teacher, a wife, mother of two and grandmother of five. Stevens lives in Central Maine with her husband on their 37-acre farmstead where she enjoys writing, reading, gardening, walking and reveling in the beauty of nature. She advocates for children and childhood literacy and for monarch butterflies, an endangered species. Stevens’s children’s activity book, THE TANGRAM ZOO and WORD PUZZLES TOO!, was first published in 1997 by Windswept House Publishing, Mt. Desert, ME; a second edition was self-published by the author in 2012. AMAZING MATILDA, Stevens’s second children’s book, self-published in 2012 won a 2013 Purple Dragonfly Book Award (Honorable Mention for Excellence in Children’s Literature – Ages 6 and older category) and also placed #9 on The 2013 Gittle List for Self-published Children’s Picture Books. Stevens has written articles for ECHOES, The Northern Maine Journal of Rural Culture based in Caribou, Maine. In 2013, the author published her first book for the YA/Adult audience: PURE TRASH: The story, a short story of a boy growing up in rural New England in a family whose poverty and alcoholism mark him as a target for bullying by young and old alike. This short story is a prequel to Stevens’s debut novel planned for release in the summer of 2014.
Thank you for visiting my blog today.  Why not pop over to Bette A. Stevens’ Author Page and see more about this fabulous author! If you would like to comment on this post, please do so beyond the ABOUT ME page.
 Thank you!
READ/COMMENT/FOLLOW!
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Published by Maretha at Fauna Park Tales

Maretha is a South African Italian, born in a small town called Montagu. She grew up in nearby Worcester in the Western Cape – a town reminiscent of living in Switzerland among the snow-capped mountains. Worcester had a small library. Young Maretha’s visits were limited to three times a week, because the librarian told her, “You spend too much time with your nose in a book and neglect your school work.” Nothing much has changed, because she's still a confirmed bookworm who constantly strives to raise more bookworms who enjoy reading, not just as a pleasant past-time, but as an excellent tool to be used when grown-up. Before immigrating to the UK to settle in Lancashire, Maretha worked as a librarian in a private school in Botswana, where one of her tasks was to encourage children to enjoy reading. That was a labour of love for this bookworm, providing valuable help in carving her own career as a children's author/illustrator. It brought her face to face with the literary industry’s toughest critics – children and preteens. She saw that many students also enjoyed reading about birds and animals, their care, habitats and general well-being, especially when a few added catchy rhymes here and there made reading sessions interesting and alive. In 2012 her job was localised and as things often happen, this unforeseen occurrence led to a new chapter in her life. To remain motivated, she wrote down everything she could remember about her family's pets – their little habits and characteristics. For example, the character of the working-dog hero in Fauna Park Tales is based on the different traits of every single dog her family ever owned. Researching habits, habitats and interesting titbits about martial eagles and eagle owls, as well as many smaller birds such as crimson-breasted shrikes and hoopoes,made it easier to illustrate them and tell a believable story. Her illustrations appear throughout Fauna Park Tales. Maretha Botha admits to being a chocoholic and unreformed coffee addict, a keen gardener and bird watcher, who likes to walk on the moors where the stiff breeze coming in from the sea, quickly clears her head, making way for more inspiration.

4 comments

  1. Dear Maretha,

    Thanks so much for listening, reading, reviewing and downloading a copy of Amazing Matilda and having a book talk with your grands. Just a quick note to let you know that the monarch’s poison is not lethal, but merely a warning (making them sick) to predators to stay away. Also the golden orange color of the caterpillars’ stripes and butterfly wings signal predators to find other prey. So glad that you picked up on that. I use the relationship between Sparrow and Matilda as a discussion point (birds eating insects) when reading to children and so happy to discover that you did too! Your lovely review made my day.

    Blessings and love,
    Bette

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    Reply

    • Thanks Bette, My grandson actually made the point about the poison, so when I see them again, I’ll be sure to read your comments to him and his sister.Your book gave them much to to talk about 😀

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  2. Lovely review. My Grandson is a little too young to read it to just yet (Age 4) although he is fascinated by Butterflies or ‘flutterbies’ as he calls them. However my daughter and I are compiling a ‘library’ of books sharing life lessons in the way ‘Amazing Matilda’ does. I think that the discussion points about predators and the warnings that certain species give them to ‘stay away’ are intensely valid. This book in now on our list. Of course grandma has the pleasure of reading it first.

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    Reply

    • Thanks for popping in. I’m sure your grandson would love to hear you reading to him from Amazing Matilda. When mine were younger, they liked to be challenged on a few big words such as metamorphosis. Have a pleasant Sunday! 🤓🐾🐾🐾🐾

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