100 Books Like Butterfly Isles

Miriam Darlington is my favourite author and Otter Country is one of the most thumbed, tatty-cornered, precious books that I own. I love it: for its voice, its humour and its beautiful prose. Darlington takes you on a gentle meander through the world of the otter in the most relatable of writing styles. She doesn’t start out as an otter expert; she learns as she goes, and so do you. Everything about this book is wonderful, and I would say the same about her other book, Owl Sense, which I have only left off this list because I wanted to cover five different authors!

A photograph gives me the form of the bird, but it remains up to me to see the bird as a bird. And that can be difficult. What do we see when we see a bird? 

The Peregrine, J. A. Baker’s masterpiece of descriptive prose, provides an answer, an answer that is as much about how we see as it is about what we see when we see birds. Sometimes we pull ourselves into the sight of others and the world emerges as more than its light. We see by being seen.

Baker achieves this kind of seeing both in his efforts to see a pair of peregrines and in his description of this achievement. 

The author and her husband are pioneers of one of the best-known rewilding schemes in Britain at their estate at Knepp in West Sussex. They began a quarter century ago, after financial losses from conventional farming of their heavy clay soils, with its reliance on expensive oil-derived inputs, became unsustainable.

She describes rewilding as restoration by letting go, although with the help of grazing animals such as pigs, ponies, and longhorn cattle. The book is a rich evocation of a landscape evolving as a remarkable array of wild species flourish. It is also a valuable record of the debates about rewilding. In 2023, it was made into a documentary film. 

This is a book for people who like to come home to a steaming mug of tea after a long walk in the countryside – rain or shine. Kate Humble takes us with her on her walks through the year, both at home and abroad. Her descriptions of the Wye Valley make you want to put on your wellies and walk out the door, dogs in tow, ready to splash through puddles, hop styles, and walk beneath the trees and the clouds. It is a lovely reminder that it is so often the little things in life that can bring us the most happiness: muddy walks in the woods, chatting to friends over a pot of coffee, watching the sky change as the sun rises. I love this book so much: it’s a lesson in the benefits of learning to live in the moment and to not take the simple… show more.

This book is funny. But it is also sweet and touches on some heavy subjects, such as miscarriage and the butterfly effect it can have on an entire family and the way in which the main character, Eden, a dance instructor, is led very much by her past and the deep hurt it holds. 

Eden meets Hunter King, a pro-golfer, and this is where the fun and steam come in! V H Nicolson is Scottish, and the book is based in Scotland and uses local terminology, with a fun glossary at the beginning of each chapter.

My husband and I met in the newsroom at the Houston Post newspaper. On paper, I guess you could say we had the same job: writing for the newspaper.

But like Lawson Gale and Jack Brighton in this book, both of whom work to preserve the environment, our jobs weren’t the same at all. He was a political reporter while I was an arts reviewer. We have completely different passions.

When lepidopterist Lawson travels to Tasmania to find and protect an endangered butterfly, he’s escorted by Parks and Wildlife officer Jack and his Border collie. I’ll admit I wasn’t very excited to read this book, but did because a friend said it was “good”.

Since I have almost no interest in endangered butterflies and environmental problems, I was hoping for “goodish mediocre”. What I got was brilliance. The book is funny, suspenseful, playful, and romantic.

The bottom line is even… show more.

This book is simple and captivating.

It’s no wonder it's a classic and enjoyed over and over again by families all over the world. There are so many ways to use this book in the kitchen with kids, but my favorite way is to use it to learn about fruit.

I used to read this book to my children and students and then review the many types of fruit in the story. Afterwards, it was fun to make a rainbow fruit salad and munch away just like the hungry caterpillar! It is also helpful for identifying and discussing the differences between healthy vs. unhealthy foods.

The book also includes: early learning for babies and toddlers of first food recognition, especially fruits; learn days of the week, numbers 1-5, and primary colors; review beginning, middle, and end of a story arc; and scientific process of metamorphosis. 

First, this is not a book about butterflies or butterfly gardens. There is a garden, but it’s not a happy one. This is a book about collections, not of beautiful bugs, but of beautiful young women. My wife turned me on to Dot Hutchison and this novel after she’d listened breathlessly to the audiobook.

This book is intense. It has elements you’d expect from a serial killer thriller, but boy, does it get dark really fast. If you were abducted and forced to live a life of captivity in a lush mansion, complete with a gorgeous indoor garden, would you really feel like a prisoner? Um, yes, you would. Especially if your captor treated you and your fellow abductees like playthings, he can (and does) do anything to. This is another one of those disturbing thrillers that will stay with you long after you’ve finished it. Good thing it’s the… show more.

This is another funny pick that gets my kids giggling.

The main character is a butterfly with an endless amount of questions and plenty of excuses about why they can’t sleep (hmm…reminds me VERY MUCH of some children I know…). Butterfly’s friend Porcupine has good suggestions for Butterfly (and anyone else who needs to get to sleep already!) to try.

When I picture a butterfly, I imagine a delicate, lovely creature gliding across the sky. Not a foul-smelling flying creature that feeds on rotting flesh. But that’s the secret side of our (formerly) favorite insects that we meet through our knowledgeable monarch butterfly narrator.

My students couldn’t get enough of this fascinatingly disgusting book.