Smokies Life is pleased to announce the publication of Camilla and the Caterpillars, an environmentally themed chapter book for ages 6-11 that introduces young readers to important ecological concepts, including habitat loss and the interdependence of native species.
Frances Figart
Written by Smokies Life creative services director Frances Figart and illustrated by Matt Brass, Camilla and the Caterpillars tells the story of a young girl’s encounter with an extraordinary caterpillar in the Great Smoky Mountains, leading her and her family on a quest to create a national park of native plants right in their own backyard.
A pair of upcoming book signings will introduce Camilla and the Caterpillars to the public. Smokies Life and Discover Life in America will host a book launch on Thursday, October 3, 6-8 p.m. at Ijams Nature Center in Knoxville, Tennessee. Krista De Cooke of Homegrown National Park, will speak, and Figart and Brass will sign books.
Figart will speak on Saturday, October 5, at 10 a.m. during the North Carolina High Peaks Trail Association annual meeting held at Burnsville Town Center in Burnsville, North Carolina.
Matt Brass
Figart, who is the author of children’s books A Search for Safe Passage (Smokies Life, 2021) and Mabel Meets a Black Bear (Smokies Life, 2023), was inspired to write the book after seeing a presentation from Doug Tallamy, founder of the Homegrown National Park movement.
As Tallamy was describing caterpillars’ significance to the food web, Figart recalled her own backyard encounter with a striking hickory horned devil, the largest caterpillar in the United States. “I got this idea for a story about a young girl who thinks of caterpillars the way we would a dog or cat,” Figart said. “She loves them, and she wants others to love them, too — to take on the responsibility of saving them and saving our land from the sterility of development.”
Camilla and the Caterpillars is the first Smokies Life publication illustrated by Matt Brass, an East Tennessee local and owner of Smoky Outfitters sticker company. Design team manager and the book’s designer Karen Key had seen his work in area retail stores and said she and her Smokies Life colleagues “knew we wanted to work with him at some point.” Brass has since worked with Smokies Life on other designs, including a Don’t Move Rocks sticker, a water bottle featuring a checklist of park destinations with matching stickers, and a T-shirt for Discover Life in America (DLiA).
Figart planned the book to be a partnership among Smokies Life, DLiA, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the Homegrown National Park movement and the Appalachian Trail Conservancy (ATC) — and she has Camilla and her family visit each of the parks that touch the AT. “It is important to me to lift up these partners and make this book as much theirs as it is ours. Diversity of species can only be conserved through diverse collaboration.”
The 6-by-9-inch chapter book can be purchased for $14.95 in the park’s visitor center bookstores and at SmokiesLife.org.
Find information about Smokies Life here.
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