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Archive for the ‘Nature’ Category

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AMAZING MATILDA, A Monarch Butterfly’s Tale by Bette A. Stevens


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Missed Matilda’s October Monarch
Butterfly Migration Celebration?

No worries…

AMAZING MATILDA, an award-winning picture book written and illustrated by Bette A. Stevens, is a brilliant bargain any time—eBook ($3.99) Paperback ($9.49) OR purchase the paperback and download eBook for FREE! http://bit.ly/19Qr3Y0

Children of all ages will be able to relate to monarch’s plight in some way… “This story is a true gem and one that will inspire children for years to come.” Renee Hand, award-winning adult and children’s books author. Hand reviews for the New York Journal of Books.

Find out more about our amazing monarch pollinators and take a “Look inside” of Bette’s award-winning picture book today!

“Science, adventure and wise lessons for kids!”

Monarch butterflies are a near-threatened species. The Center for Biological Diversity and the Center for Food Safety filed a legal petition requesting Endangered Species Act protection for the monarch and its habitat.

About the book

AM cover with MonarchAMAZING MATILDA by Bette A. Stevens (Ages 4-11 + grownups love it too) Friendship, patience and persistence are among the lessons learned in this gem of a tale featuring an amazing monarch butterfly. This award-winning picture book adventure follows the monarch’s life cycle as Matilda embarks on a quest to make her dream of flying come true. Matilda emerges from her egg on a milkweed leaf—she stretches and yawns and knows she wants to fly. Sparrow tells her to follow her dreams. Toad and Rabbit laugh at a creature without wings who wants to fly. You’ll be as amazed as Toad and Rabbit are as you follow Matilda from egg to imago. Science, art and wise lessons for children—all wrapped up in a tale the kids will want to read/hear again and again!

  • Bette A. Stevens received her B.S. in Elementary Education from the University of Maine at Orono before embarking on graduate courses in Curriculum Studies at Chapman University in California. She has taught in elementary and middle school classrooms in California and Virginia. Stevens is the author of AMAZING MATILDA, an award-winning picture book; The Tangram Zoo and Word Puzzles Too!, a home/school resource incorporating hands-on math and writing; and PURE TRASH, the short story prequel to her début novel, DOG BONE SOUP, a Boomer’s coming of age novel published in January 2015.

Eighth-generation (2015) monarch butterflies in the US and Canada migrate south each fall. Destination—Mexico and California’s coast where they over-winter before mating to create the first generation of monarchs for the northern migration that begins the following spring.

Inspire the kids in your life with AMAZING MATILDA today and find out more about all of Bette’s books! http://viewauthor.at/BetteAStevens

Love monarch Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ butterflies?

FREE: Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ FUN & LEARNING WITH MONARCH BUTTERFLIES  (FREE pdf) from Bette
Monarch FactsColoring PagesCraftsGardeningVideo: How to Make an Origami Butterfly
Butterfly Teacher Guide and more…Find out how you can help protect our Amazing Monarchs at https://4writersandreaders.com/fun-learning-with-monarchs-2/

[Explore Bette’s Blog]

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Celebrate Autumn with a Monarch Butterfly Adventure! AMAZING MATILDA by Bette A. Stevens Only 99¢ October 21-25


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To celebrate the season’s great Monarch Butterfly Migration, AMAZING MATILDA by Maine author/illustrator Bette A. Stevens is on sale for only 99¢ from October 21—25. Find out more about our amazing monarch pollinators and download your copy of Bette’s award-winning picture book today!

Monarch butterflies are a near-threatened species. The Center for Biological Diversity and the Center for Food Safety filed a legal petition requesting Endangered Species Act protection for the monarch and its habitat.

Eighth-generation (2015) monarch butterflies in the US and Canada are migrating south right now—destination: Mexico and California’s coast where they will over-winter before mating to create the first generation of monarchs for the northern migration that begins during the spring of 2016.

 Celebrate the Great Migration with AMAZING MATILDA

Kindle version only 99¢
October 21—25, 2015
at Your Amazon

About the book

AMAZING MATILDA by Bette A. Stevens (Ages 4-11 + grownups love it too) Friendship, patience and persistence are among the lessons learned in this gem of a tale featuring an amazing monarch butterfly. This award-winning picture book adventure follows the monarch’s life cycle as Matilda embarks on a quest to make her dream of flying come true. Matilda emerges from her egg on a milkweed leaf—she stretches and yawns and knows she wants to fly. Sparrow tells her to follow her dreams. Toad and Rabbit laugh at a creature without wings who wants to fly. You’ll be as amazed as Toad and Rabbit are as you follow Matilda from egg to imago. Science, art and wise lessons for children—all wrapped up in a tale the kids will want to read/hear again and again!

Latest 5✰ Book Review

AM cover with Monarchby T. Sanders (October 18, 2015)

As an early educator for nearly fifteen years, I am always seeking new books to share with my children. I stumbled upon this book and because I adore butterflies, I just had to give it a try. What I discovered is that this is not just another children’s book with pretty pictures and an engaging story line. It has a subtle, yet powerful underlining theme of perseverance, patience, and believing in oneself. The language isn’t too sophisticated for the targeted age group, yet it’s written in a way which would also cause parents to not be annoyed in having to read it ‘just one more time’ at the pleas of their little ones.

I own the Kindle and paperback version of this book now and I display it proudly in my classroom with my other favorites such as ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ and Dr. Seuss classics. With all the ridiculous contemporary children’s books being released, which have no positive message or valuable information in them, it’s refreshing to find a gem like this one to add to my library.

Download your copy of “AMAZING MATILDA”

ONLY 99¢  OCTOBER 21—25
(OR: Purchase paperback and download the eBook for FREE
any time) at YOUR AMAZON

About the author

BAS Author logo stamp 2015Inspired by nature and human nature, author Bette A. Stevens is a retired elementary and middle school 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 reading, writing, gardening, walking and reveling in the beauty of nature. She advocates for children and families, for childhood literacy and for the conservation of monarch butterflies—an endangered species (and milkweed, the only plant that monarch caterpillars will eat).

Stevens is the author of AMAZING MATILDA, an award-winning picture book; The Tangram Zoo and Word Puzzles Too!, a home/school resource incorporating hands-on math and writing; and PURE TRASH, the short story prequel to her début novel, DOG BONE SOUP, a Boomer’s coming of age novel published in January 2015.

Please share this post… Monarch butterflies are a near-threatened species. The Center for Biological Diversity and the Center for Food Safety filed a legal petition requesting Endangered Species Act protection for the monarch and its habitat.

FIND OUT MORE: Monarch butterflies could get endangered species status

  • Download Bette’s FREE pdf for amazing links to:
    ★Monarch Facts
    ★Coloring Pages
    ★Crafts
    ★Gardening
    ★Video: How to Make an Origami Butterfly
    ★Butterfly Teacher Guide and more…
    ★Find out how you can help protect our Amazing Monarchs
    https://4writersandreaders.com/fun-learning-with-monarchs-2/
  • Bette’s Books

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[Explore Bette’s Blog]

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The Incredible Journey of the Monarch Butterfly!


580890_292694764163370_1843993266_n     Click link to WATCH this incredible NOVA/PBS Video…

     http://video.pbs.org/video/1063682334/

    You’ll be amazed!

You can take a “Look inside” AMAZING MATILDA and other books by Bette A. Stevens at http://viewauthor.at/BetteAStevens

[Explore Bette’s Blog]

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The wonder of it all!


AWESOME AUTUMN basThe deciduous leaves are sparkling against the conifers and the canvas sky the here at “The Farmstead” in Central Maine. Have a beautiful week, friends! ~ Bette A. Stevens

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REVELATION, a poem by Bette A. Stevens


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BROOK SONGS a poem by Bette A. Stevens


BROOK SONGS poem by basInspired by nature, I love to walk to down the brook. It’s only a quarter-mile from “The Farmstead” here in Central Maine and no matter the weather or season, the sights and sounds of the water and the abundance of nature’s bounty always manage to refresh my soul and often inspire the writer child within me. The photo for the poem Brook Songs was taken last fall. As the autumn season nears a new dawning, I put pen to paper for a draft before designing the poem on the computer. ~ Bette A. Stevens, Maine author/illustrator

  • Take a “Look inside” all of Bette’s books on YOUR AMAZON.
  • You’ll find more of Bette’s poetry right here on her blog

[Explore Bette’s Blog]

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857. If you want to know God, watch a monarch butterfly from a thousand miles away return to a place where it has never been before. ~Author Unknown


Celebrate the season with our amazing monarch butterflies! ~ Bette A. Stevens http://www.4writersandreaders.com

nataliescarberry's avatarSacred Touches

Butterflies…not quite birds,
as they are not quite flowers,
mysterious and fascinating
as are all indeterminate creatures.
~Elizabeth Goudge

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From inside my house today, I’m pretty sure I saw a monarch butterfly fluttering about my yard. This is an occurrence that I look forward to twice a year. For you see from April through June monarchs leave their habitats in groves of fir trees deep in Mexico or in the ancient Mayan ruins of Palenque to begin a journey as far north as southern Canada and in so doing fly over our area. Sadly the monarch’s numbers have decreased tremendously because of the ongoing shrinking of their habitats and the poisoning by farmers of milkweeds (Asclepias) along their flyway. However, I’m still seeing a measure of them every year, and finding these colorful nomadic wanderers in my garden has always been a delightful rite of passage in their dramatic migrations. Monarchs with their burnt-orange and…

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853. Nature is infinitely creative. It is always producing the possibility of new beginnings. ~Marianne Williamson


The wonder of it all! ~ Bette A. Stevens

nataliescarberry's avatarSacred Touches

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The Law of Divine Compensation posits that this is a self-organizing and self-correcting universe: the embryo becomes a baby, the bud becomes a blossom, the acorn becomes an oak tree. Clearly, there is some invisible force that is moving every aspect of reality to its next best expression. ~Marianne Williamson

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Nature inspires my everything. She inspires my solitude, and my writing and my art. She lifts me upon her welcoming wings and soars me through the sky of possibilities. She colors my day, brightens my soul, and calms my nights. She is fierce and beautiful, strong and delicate — an unrelenting Queen so generous of advice and never weary of new beginnings. In spring a colorful maiden, in winter a wise old lady, in autumn a looking-glass to my falling-leaf self, and summer a warm blossomed benefactor, comrade to the sun. A constant companion — sometimes indifferent, sometimes nuzzling me…

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A Monarch Butterfly Haiku by Bette A. Stevens


Royal Visitor MONARCH 2015 Haiku basI’ve only spotted a dozen monarchs here at the farmstead in Central Maine this summer. Recently, two delightful specimens danced around the garden where I encourage milkweed to grow alongside the flowers, herbs, fruits and vegetables that we harvest. I grabbed my camera just in time to capture one of our regal visitors pirouette upon the peppermint. ~ Bette A. Stevens

  • To find out how you can help protect monarch butterflies—one of our amazing pollinators— download your free poster here:

PROTECT MONARCH BUTTERFLIES free-poster

  • Find out how to tell a male monarch from a female monarch and discover other amazing monarch butterfly facts
  • Enjoy monarch crafts, games, gardening and discover so much more

WHERE?
Download Bette’s free pdf here:

FUN & LEARNING with MONARCHS (free pdf)

Fun&LearningWith Amazing Monarchs! 2014

Maine author/illustrator Bette A. Stevens
“Inspired by nature and human nature.”

Bette Book Collage WHITE BORDER

Find all of Bette’s books at YOUR AMAZON.

[Bette’s Blog]

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morning light…


Bask in the beauty! ~ Bette A. Stevens

SwittersB & Exploring's avatarSwittersB & Exploring

“The sun just touched the morning;
The morning, happy thing,
Supposed that he had come to dwell,
And life would be all spring.”

Emily Dickinson

pink rose-morning light-garden-SwittersB

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