The Monarch Effect: Surviving Poison, Predators, and People

This nonfiction account examines monarch butterflies’ traits and behavior alongside the long record of human attention to, and disruption of, the species. It follows the monarch’s development from caterpillar feeding on milkweed through metamorphosis, adult life, and migration. The book also describes efforts by professional and amateur scientists to understand the insects. Its history of the monarchs’ wintering grounds in Michoacán, Mexico, considers the usual credit given to Canadian researcher Dr. Urquhart, Mexican naturalist Catalina Trail’s role in locating the exact site, and the Indigenous peoples who had long cared for those forests.