Did you know that I was once a butterfly babysitter? Yep, a friend asked me to watch over her two dozen monarch caterpillars – including feeding them and cleaning up their poop – until they made their chrysalises and hatched into butterflies!
That’s why I love the board game Mariposas by (again) the incredible Elizabeth Hargrave. Yep, she is a genius at coming up with nature-related board games. The goal in this game is to help your monarchs migrate north over the seasons and multiply AND get back to Mexico in time for to stay warm all winter.
But for many years it was a mystery where monarchs went all winter. And there are some excellent books about the people who studied the monarch migration.
I like The Mystery of the Monarchs by Barb Rosenstock. The subtitle is “How Kids, Teachers, and Butterfly Fans Helped Fred and Norah Urquhart Track the Great Monarch Migration.” I love community science, and this book is all about how ordinary people helped with this huge research question.
This book and board game pair is perfect for people who love butterflies and love a game with a predictable end point. You aren’t playing until someone accumulates a certain number of points (like in Settlers of Catan). You’re only playing for four seasons, so don’t delay. And as a bonus, you learn geography and the names of flowers that monarchs love!
As always, if you want to learn how to play, I recommend checking out “Watch It Played” on YouTube. Also,BoardGameGeek offers a lot of great recommendations and Q&A.
Once you decide you want to buy a game, please look around for a local board game store!
For more book recommendations, I ALWAYS recommend visiting and buying from your local bookstore. One way you can buy online and support a local store is by shopping through Bookshop.org.