BOOKMONGER
Finding hope in butterfl ies
Dystopian tale weaves in
ethics, wilderness skills
Portland artist and cartoonist Jonathan
Case has quite the imagination. His latest
novel, “Little Monarchs,” presents a variety
of ethical issues in the form of a tough little
10 year old’s journal.
In the summer of 2101, 10 year old Elvi
begins a journal to track the route that she
and her caretaker Flora will take to follow
the migration of monarch butterfl ies as they
make their way along the Pacifi c coast of
what was once the United States.
Fifty years earlier, a shift in the sun’s
radiation wiped out most mammals living
on Earth by disrupting electrical systems
governing their heartbeats. Only the mam-
mals who were deep underground survived,
and among those were a handful of scien-
tists working in the sub-basement of a tech-
nical institute in southern California. These
scientists were called “deepers,” as they had
to avoid the sun’s rays and live deep under-
ground during the day to survive. Flora’s
parents were among them.
As Flora grew up, she built on the his-
torical work of other scientists to try to fi nd
a way to protect the heart from “sun sick-
ness,” which, in the novel, causes a cata-
strophically irregular heartbeat. She devel-
ops a way to derive chemicals and make
medicine from the scales of monarch butter-
fl y wings, harvesting only a few from each
insect so that they will not be harmed.
To ramp up the project and convert the
medicine to a long term vaccine, Flora must
ensure that monarch butterfl y populations
are healthy, which means that they need to
have reliable and abundant stands of milk-
weed to feed upon along their migration
route. By 2101, she is helped in this eff ort
by Elvi, another kid of deepers. Elvi’s par-
ents had left their daughter in Flora’s care
while they tried to get to Michoacán, a for-
est reserve in the Mexican highlands where
the monarchs make their winter home. But
they haven’t been heard from in years, so
their dangerous journey may have failed.
Flora, now in her 40s , doesn’t have a
warm and fuzzy personality, but she nur-
This week’s book
‘Little Monarchs’ by Jonathan Case
Holiday House – 256 pp – $22.99 hardcov-
er, $14.99 paperback
tures Elvi in the best way she knows how:
by teaching her survival skills and providing
her with a makeshift education in the nearly
forgotten glories of civilization, such as
Shakespeare’s plays, art, math, the scientifi c
method and even manners, occasionally.
The pair trek along the West Coast, fol-
lowing the migration of the monarchs and
tending the milkweed patches, performing
the delicate operation of harvesting scales
from butterfl y wings and developing new
batches of medicine in search of a func-
tional vaccine. But their journey is fraught
with peril. Accidents and natural disas-
ters befall them. There are other “deeper”
sites along the way, but after decades of iso-
lation and deprivation, there’s no way of
knowing whom can be trusted. Flora and
Elvi confront issues of disappointment and
perseverance.
Case has created a gripping tale, invest-
ing it with ethical and emotional complex-
‘Little Monarchs’ is by Jonathan Case.
ity, but also studding it with geolocation and
other wilderness skills. Loads of adventure
and exploration await, from shipwrecks near
Pacifi c City to caves in Colorado. “Little
Monarchs” is top notch.
The Bookmonger is Barbara Lloyd
McMichael, who writes this weekly column
focusing on books, authors and publish-
ers of the Pacifi c Northwest. Contact her at
barbaralmcm@gmail.com.
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