A ten-year-old girl may be the only person who can save humanity from
extinction in this exciting graphic novel adventure.
It's been fifty years since a sun shift wiped out nearly all mammal life
across the earth.
Towns and cities are abandoned relics, autonomous machines maintain
roadways, and the world is slowly being reclaimed by nature. Isolated
pockets of survivors keep to themselves in underground sites, hiding
from the lethal sunlight by day and coming above ground at night.
10-year-old Elvie and her caretaker, Flora, a biologist, are the only
two humans who can survive during daylight because Flora made an
incredible discovery - a way to make an antidote to sun sickness using
the scales from monarch butterfly wings. Unfortunately, it can only be
made in small quantities and has a short shelf life.
Free to travel during the day, Elvie and Flora follow monarchs as they
migrate across the former Western United States, constantly making new
medicine for themselves while trying to find a way to make a vaccine
they can share with everyone. Will they discover a way to go from a
treatment to a cure and preserve what remains of humanity, or will their
efforts be thwarted by disaster and the very people they are trying to
save?
Little Monarchs is a new kind of graphic novel adventure--one that
invites readers to take an intimate look at the natural world and the
secrets hidden within. Elvie and Flora's adventures take place in real
locations marked panel-by-panel with coordinates and a compass heading.
Curious readers can follow their travel routes and see the same
landscapes--whether it be a secluded butterfly grove on the California
coast or a hot-springs in the high desert. Through both comic narrative
and journal entries, readers learn the basics of star navigation, how to
tie useful knots, and other survival skills applicable in the natural
world.
Creator Jonathan Case acquired the fact-based portion of Little
Monarchs through intensive research and several expeditions to study
monarchs across the western United States. Scientific support also came
from the Xerces Society, the world leaders in monarch preservation.
An American Library Association Notable Children's Book
An ALA Graphic Novels & Comics Round Table Top Ten Best Graphic Novels
for Children Selection
Named to the Little Maverick Graphic Novel Reading List
A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection
A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year
A New York Public Library Best Book of the Year
An NPR Book We Love
A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year
A Booklist Editors' Choice Selection
