Grandad's Butterflies - My Spring Fling Kidlit Writing Contest Entry

via GIPHY

My favorite place in this big, beautiful world in the Coronado Monarch Butterfly Preserve. 

I've always dreamt of bringing my children to see the butterflies. But there is a HUGE problem: The monarch population has seen a 99.9% decline since the 1980s! This is due to climate change and deforestation affecting the growth of milkweed. Milkweed is where they lay their eggs and is the ONLY food for their caterpillars.

Luckily, these gorgeous invertebrates aren't extinct yet!

You can help the monarchs! Here's how: 

• Try and plant as much milkweed as possible!
• And, if you have the means, you can donate to the Xerces Society, an invertebrate conservation group. 

I wrote this piece with my monarch friends in my heart. I want my children and my children's children to feel the same flutter of joy I felt when visiting the thousands of butterflies at the monarch preserve.

​Together, we can save this species! 

Click here find out more about the Spring Fling Kidlit Writing Contest! 
Thank you to Ciara O'Neal and Kaitlyn Sanchez for hosting! :) 

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Grandad's Butterflies
by Gennie Gorback
149 Words

Grandad could talk about butterflies for hours. I knew his stories by heart. 

He spoke of springtime visits to the monarch preserve. 
And of the near-silent fluttering of tens of thousands of monarchs, resting there before heading north. 
Grandad said the butterflies looked like confetti decorating the sky.  
He’d use my black and orange crayons to draw the wing patterns that danced in his memories. 

Finally, my footsteps crunched the same path my grandfather walked as a boy. 

I approached a clearing and prepared to be amazed.

Then--
        my arms drooped
                                      like
                                            broken 
                                                      wings. 

Where were all of the butterflies? 

There were some, but it wasn't like the photos on Grandad’s wall. 

Grandad was gone. His butterflies... disappearing. 

I wandered down the trail and collapsed onto the grass.

There, I found a milkweed plant. Tiny butterfly eggs dotted the underside of its leaves. 

Grandad’s butterfly story wasn’t over yet.