Butterfly Park

As in her previous books, MacKay (Shadow Chasers) builds this story around characters and scenery she paints, cuts out, and then photographs with dramatic lighting; they sparkle with genuine, fairy-tale charm. This tale stars a dark-haired girl whose elfin shoes, red petal dress, and balletic poses give her a pixie-ish air. She has moved from the country to the city, and she discovers an extravagant, Art Nouveau–style gate next to her new house. “Butterfly Park,” it reads. “The girl repeated the letters. Suddenly, she felt very lucky!” But where are the park’s butterflies? A butterfly chase takes the girl and a growing group of children through the city’s alleyways and up its staircases, but capturing butterflies won’t work forever. Her new neighbors enlighten her: gardening is the way to attract butterflies. A bravura foldout shows Butterfly Park now crowded with plants, flowers, friends, and butterflies. Though the prose is of the greeting-card variety (“everyone planted until the park was brimming with flowers and laughter”), MacKay’s artwork recreates the feel and pleasure of Edwardian-era illustration, and lovers of picture-book fantasy will embrace it. Ages 3–up. (May)