The Bat In The Boot

The Bat In The Boot

From Booklist Ages 4^-7. In a story based on a real-life incident, two children find a baby bat in their father's boot; they protect and care for the animal until evening, when the mother bat returns to rescue her little one. As sensitive and restrained as the text, Cannon's artwork depicts the scenes with fine lines of color pencil and watercolor washes against backgrounds of beige that deepen to charcoal as night falls. Later, the family consults "a zookeeper friend" about the foundling, and they (and the audience) learn a bit more about bats, including how lucky the children were to have found a healthy bat, and how lucky the bat was to have had their protection. Children will find the story about this increasingly loved animal absorbing and the illustrations appealing. Carolyn Phelan A family finds a baby bat in their mudroom and takes care of him until his mother comes back for him From Publishers Weekly This appealing story of a family's encounter with a baby bat instantly piques interest with a dramatic prologue showing bats swooping onto a windowsill framed by the night sky. Then the scene shifts to a sunny afternoon when "something bumpy and rubbery and alive" is found inside Dad's empty boot. As children and parents care for their foundling (prying its claws from the boot, feeding it milk from an eyedropper, constructing a shoebox house), afternoon fades into evening?and the creature's mother returns unexpectedly. In her authorial debut, Cannon (illustrator of Whistle Home) moves the text at an optimal, easy-going rate via enthusiastic narration and economical yet natural dialogue. Soft-hued vignettes capture bat peculiarities (a sheer, silk-like wing; a belly that turns white when filled with milk) and add subtle humor (as the family speculates on the orphan over lunch, the boy nibbles his sandwich into the shape of a bat). Pure pleasure for bat-lovers; guaranteed therapy for bat-avoiders. Ages 4-7. Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. From School Library Journal PreSchool-Grade 2?One Saturday morning, two children find a baby bat in a boot. They place it in a shoebox and feed and care for it throughout the day, speculating about how it got in the boot and where its mother might be. After supper, the creature begins chittering and its mother swoops into the house and scoops it up. Based on an actual incident, a few facts are seamlessly incorporated into the text, as is a boxed insert on "bat luck." The story, straightforward and gracefully told, is sandwiched between several pages that poetically describe the creatures' nightly foray into the house. The illustrations, rendered in watercolor, tempera, and pencil, effectively convey the events, particularly the drama of the rescue. The palette of tans, creams, and blues enables the brown-and-charcoal bat to stand out. The balanced composition and the generous use of double-page spreads lend immediacy to the story. This book makes the subject less fearsome to children, and will serve as a companion to Ruth Horowitz's Bat Time (Four Winds, 1991; o.p.), Janell Cannon's Stellaluna (Harcourt, 1993), and Don Freeman's less realistic Hattie the Backstage Bat (Puffin, 1988). It will also lead curious readers to nonfiction such as Joyce Milton's Bats! (Grosset, 1993) and Ann Earle's Zipping, Zapping, Zooming Bats (HarperCollins, 1995).?Cynthia K. Richey, Mt. Lebanon Public Library, Pittsburgh, PACopyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Kirkus Reviews Cannon's first solo outing (she illustrated Jo Carson's You Hold Me and I'll Hold You, 1992) demonstrates she is as at home with text as she is with pictures. No word is wasted in this lyrical account of children who discover a baby brown bat nesting in an old boot in the mudroom. Respect for living things is evident in the soft pen and tempera drawings that show the children and their parents gently shaking the baby loose from its hiding place i