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Review: Little Monarchs

By Jonathan Case
New York : Margaret Ferguson Books/Holiday House, 2022. Comic. 255 pgs.

Elvie is an 10-year-old girl living in the twenty-second century. Because of a sun shift, it is impossible for mammals to be exposed to daylight for extended periods of time and survive, so most of humanity lives underground. Elvie travels around with her caretaker, Flora, who has found a temporary cure for the "sun sickness" using the scales of monarch butterflies. They set out to follow the migration pattern of the monarchs to find a more permanent solution to save humanity before it is too late!

This post-apocalyptic graphic novel is perfect for readers who love dystopian novels or survival stories. Elvie keeps a journal during their adventures that is packed full of scientific facts and survival skills, which adds a fun element of nonfiction to this fictional story as well.

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