It's Fern's birthday, and all she wants is a metal detector.

Instead, she gets clothes and a mysterious long box that turns out to be a gardening tool from her neighbor, Madame Musette, with a note about coming over to pull weeds. Sigh. Fern and her friend Newt lost her older sister Nicole's jewelry box when they buried it at the beach, playing pirates. If they can just find it before Nicole returns from camp, they'll be in the clear. But the quest is impossible without a metal detector!

Fern and Newt need to earn the money to buy one themselves. Luckily, Madame Musette offers Fern five cents for every root pulled and Newt agrees to help too. The money adds up—but very slowly—until the friends discover that Madame Musette will pay even more for butterfly eggs so she can let them hatch safely before releasing them outside. With the summer slipping away and Nicole due home at any minute, will the friends be able to earn enough for a metal detector and find the treasure before it’s too late?

Key Selling Points

• After Fern and Newt accidentally lose her sister’s jewelry box at the beach, they earn money by helping a neighbor pull weeds and collect butterfly eggs in order to buy a metal detector to find it.
• Shows kids learning the consequences of their actions in a lighthearted and funny way. Also demonstrates their ingenuity and ability to problem solve—and work hard—to try to fix their wrongdoings.
• Despite the challenges and failures they experience, Fern and Newt have a strong friendship that helps keep them going.
• In helping Madame Musette, Fern and Newt (and readers) get a look at the process of raising monarch butterflies, from collecting and storing the eggs to the caterpillar phase, the chrysalis and finally the hatching of the butterfly.
• The expressive illustrations of Catarina Oliveira capture the humor and action of the story, and the relationships between characters, who are from a variety of diverse backgrounds.
• Mireille Messier is a well-established author who has written over thirty picture books and chapter books, both in French and English.