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For A M and S Text and illustrations copyright 2019 by Christina Willis All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced without the express written permission of the author www design in bold com Printed in the U S A The text type was set in Caveat Brush and P22 Garamouche

BU I L F Written and Illustrated by Christina Willis

W hat was inside the egg Was it a bug or a bird A small caterpillar with lots of legs Had finally emerged A big caterpillar named Tera Crawled up from beneath Surprised to see the Little One On a nearby leaf Tera asked the Little One Do you have a moment There s a story I want to tell One that s quite important The Little One was curious And listening eagerly As Tera spoke of exciting things That d happened recently

On the bright green milkweed leaves The caterpillars crawled Eating and eating and eating They did this all day long They knew that it was almost time For a new life filled with strangeness Caterpillars enjoyed life as it was And dreaded all the changes Perhaps it would be easier If they didn t have to change Could they still be caterpillars And keep their lives the same

Flower nectar instead of leaves And flying through the air Why bother with such things For which we do not care The leaves are so delicious Why should we eat flowers Flowers don t appeal to us And nectar is surely sour And who says we need wings From here we see the sky Yes wings are lovely things But we don t want to fly Let s keep living as caterpillars Let s not fly away The milkweed is so familiar Why don t we just stay

When it was time for the next phase The others feared the worst But the one named Chrys was brave Therefore she went first It s really not so bad said Chrys There s nothing much to fear The others were not listening So they did not hear

Chrys stayed inside for a while For how long she didn t know The only thing she knew for sure Is that she must have grown Her cocoon had once been cozy And it kept her safely shrouded Now that little space she d made Was feeling much too crowded When Chrys emerged she noticed Her vibrant stripes had changed To fuzzy little polka dots Randomly arranged

The caterpillars reminded Chrys Do not stretch your wings When we live as caterpillars We don t need those things We ve no use for flying No reason for us to try Being caterpillar like means we CANNOT FLY Okay then Chrys replied I ll keep my wings small I guess I don t really need them If I m going to crawl

I ll try this cannotfly life said Chrys Maybe I will like it What if it s good fun after all I won t know unless I try it

As the other cannotflies emerged They tried to do the same They would not fly away They d play the caterpillar game The cannotflies had to adapt And learn a few new skills Their caterpillarness had faded And mostly they weren t thrilled One thing they d least expected Was also quite frustrating The green leaves they d loved so much Were no longer tasty

A caterpillar noticed that Chrys looked rather sad When I eat the leaves said Chrys They taste really bad You don t like leaves anymore The caterpillar asked surprised The same leaves Chrys had once liked Were leaves she now despised

Late into the evening Under the dark and starry sky Chrys thought of flowers And spreading her wings to fly

Under the blue moonlight Chrys drifted off to sleep Thinking about lovely things She then began to dream

At the break of dawn Chrys wakes up And sees something peculiar In the distance a big bright light And something unfamiliar It s hard to see what it is said Chrys From her leafy nook I think I ll fly over there To take a closer look

Oops Chrys fell down She was okay and she didn t fret Chrys remembered why she couldn t fly She hadn t stretched her wings YET uh oh

What Chrys saw next was weird It was the strangest thing she d seen The caterpillars were busy Making piles of green The ambitious little creatures Thought that they were clever Making leaf piles for the future But this was done in error Though the leaves were yummy now This wouldn t always be true When caterpillars become cannotflies The leaves will taste like glue

For Chrys and her friends A new adventure begins Looking beyond those leaf piles Might just be worthwhile

What is it that they see Something new indeed It s not too far just over there Beyond the tall milkweed

They climbed up to the top For a better view They saw a field of sunflowers Drenched with morning dew

Looking to the ground After everything they d seen The caterpillars looked silly With their piles of green

Should they stay in the milkweed And keep eating endless leaves Or should they go for the nectar And flying in the breeze

Chrys S T R E T C H E S out her wings The others wowed and gazed They were so amazed Would Chrys decide to stay Or would she fly away

I think it s time to go said Chrys I m ready for the sky Sure I could stay here BU I L F

Chrys had awakened The cannotflies felt brave So they stretched their own wings Oh what a special day The cannotflies had no more fears No longer afraid to try They just needed to hear the words But I l ly BUT I LL FLY But I l ly But I l ly But I l ly

But I f y But I l ly

The cannotflies left the milkweed And went on their merry way The caterpillars knew it was time For exploring their next phase The Little One said to Tera Before you go inside Can you tell me why they were Saying BUTTERFLY It s only speculation but Would it come as a surprise Perhaps this is the reason We call them butterflies