Becoming Charley

by Kelly DiPucchio, Loveis Wise (Illustrator)

Overview

A New York Times bestselling author and an award-winning illustrator team up for a striking, modern-day take on The Very Hungry Caterpillar that celebrates staying true to oneself.

Everyone is trying to teach Charley the right way to become a butterfly: Eat your milkweed! Think black! Think orange!

But Charley's busy admiring the many beautiful things in the world. Like the swaying trees, and the tall mountains, and the turquoise sea. . . . Is there really a "right" way for Charley to become a butterfly? 

Young readers will see themselves in Charley--a little caterpillar with an emerging identity--in this dazzling picture book that beautifully explores the nature of self-love.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780593429068
Publisher:	Random House Children's Books
Publication date:	05/02/2023
Sold by:	Random House
Format:	eBook
Pages:	40
Lexile:	AD530L (what's this?)
File size:	17 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	3 - 7 Years

About the Author

Kelly DiPucchio is the award-winning author of several children’s books, including the New York Times bestseller Grace for President and Gaston, which the Wall Street Journal called a "wonderfully colorful picture book." Kelly has been a featured author/speaker at numerous schools, public libraries, and universities, and lives in southeastern Michigan with her family.

Loveis Wise is an illustrator and designer from Washington, DC. They are the illustrator of Ablaze with Color: A Story of Painter Alma Thomas, which received three starred reviews, as well as The People Remember, which received five starred reviews and was hailed as "powerful" by the New York Times. Loveis's work can be found in the New Yorker, Google, Adobe, and the New York Times. They reside in Los Angeles.

Editorial Reviews

03/20/2023

In this be-yourself story by DiPucchio (Not Yeti), Charley may look like the rest of the monarch caterpillars around him, but while the others “kept their heads down, eating, just as they’d been taught,” Charley gazes dreamily up at the trees, the clouds, and the stars. His elders urge him to munch milkweed, the better to become “a big, strong butterfly,” but Charley wonders about being “a spotted fawn. Or a waterfall.” Part of the young caterpillars’ lesson is to gaze at monarch-patterned cards so they’ll know how to model themselves; Charley concentrates, instead, on wildflowers and mountains. Boldly hued digital spreads by Wise (Magnolia Flower) create a graphically simple caterpillar’s-eye view that’s loosely faithful to the natural world, highlighting monarch caterpillar coloration and the milkweed’s starry compound flowers. After the chrysalises of Charley’s cohort finally hatch and Charley isn’t among them, a final surprise reveals his new form, which reflects the character’s creativity as a young caterpillar. The idea that experiences and expectations shape creatures as they grow is gently and colorfully suggested, though, for the youngest readers, the difference between which elements are invented and which are fact may not be intuitively clear. Ages 3–7. Agent (for author and illustrator): Steven Malk, Writers House. (May)

Publishers Weekly

★ "Convention is upended in this striking tale of individuality and change." —Kirkus Reviews, starred review

"The underlying message, that it is okay to stray from what is expected, will delight young and old readers alike." —School Library Journal

"Uniquely colorful....As children decide who they are going to be, this story invites them to recognize that there may be more than one path to follow." —Booklist

"Playful and gentle." —The Bulletin

From the Publisher

04/01/2023

PreS-Gr 2—This charming work tells the story of Charley, a caterpillar who looks to the skies as his friends keep their heads down to eat, exactly as they were taught. The young caterpillars spend their days learning the way of the butterfly; encouraged by the elders to "think black, think orange," and "eat your milkweed." Charley struggles to concentrate on the stern, repetitive expectations as the warm sun beckons him to discover the beauty that surrounds him in the wildflowers, mountains, and the turquoise sea. When the time comes for Charley to begin his metamorphosis, he fears failure, until he hears the song of a bluebird and channels the peaceful warmth of the sun and the calming twinkle of the stars. When Charley emerges, he has become everything he has ever loved. Readers will surely be drawn to the bright illustrations that evoke both the carefree mood of Charley and the rigidity of the elder butterflies. The variety of sizes and typefaces of text add interest to the story, while the pacing is compelling. VERDICT The underlying message, that it is okay to stray from what is expected, will delight young and old readers alike.—Ellen Kleber

School Library Journal

★ 2023-02-25
Convention is upended in this striking tale of individuality and change.

“Black. Orange. This. Not that.” From the day they are hatched, young caterpillars are informed by their butterfly guardians how to think and how to act. All obey except for Charley. While the others eat ceaselessly, Charley looks up into the canopy and gazes at the trees and clouds and stars. While the others dream of becoming butterflies, Charley imagines what it would be like to be a deer or a waterfall. And as the butterflies tell their charges what to think, Charley finds new things to discover. At last, the day comes for all caterpillars to form their chrysalises, and Charley worries. But while inside, the wayward caterpillar imagines far more than just orange and black, so that when at last the new butterflies emerge, the protagonist’s wings reflect “everything Charley had ever loved.” Storytelling that could have come off as heavy-handed is instead treated here with an elegant touch. Wise produces lush, lovely spreads, not only of the standard monarch colors, but of a world far beyond their perceived limitations. The reveal at the end is evocative of that final spread in Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar (1969) but with an entirely different thought process at work. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Moralizing bows out in favor of a clever celebration of how our experiences affect our selves. (Picture book. 3-6)

Kirkus Reviews