Children’s Book Takes A Look At Bats

“Bat Loves the Night” by Nicola Davies, illustrated by Sarah Fox-Davies, 2001, Candlewick Press, $8.99, softbound, 31 pages: Suited for ages 5-8, this beautifully illustrated book starts with an introduction that includes pencil drawings of seven different types of bats, none of which is the title character. The title character, Bat, is a pipistrelle bat, who the introduction tells us are found around the world.
Then, Sarah Fox-Davies’ artwork is seen in color – pencil and watercolor, to be exact – and the title character makes her appearance. The text is descriptive and at times poetic. The beating of Bat’s wings is likened to a tiny umbrella opening, and a moth’s scales are said to be slippery, like moon-dust.
The artwork is equally lyrical. Fox-Davies creates smooth, elegant lines and has the talent to capture Bat in motion, from flight to scooping an insect into her mouth. Every picture and sentence is laid down with purpose, and tells the reader something about Bat and her kind.
Apart from the main story are little facts about bats in general and pipistrelle bats in particular. For instance, the pipistrelle bat’s body is the size of a human thumb; bats do have the ability to see, but their ability to hear is more important in the dark.
Even the miniature biographies of the author and artist of this book are an interesting read, and not just for adults. Younger readers will be thrilled to learn that Nicola Davies has pipistrelle bats living in the roof of her cottage and that a pipistrelle bat flew into Sarah Fox-Davies’ studio and landed on her desk while she was working on the illustrations for this book.
A “Read, Listen, and Wonder” book, “Bat Loves the Night” comes with a read-along CD. The first track has music and the sounds of real bats as Alan Marriott reads the text. The second track is bat facts, some of which differ from those in the book. For example, we learned that while fruit bats eat fruit and vampire bats eat blood, bulldog bats do not eat bulldogs, but rather, they eat fish. The third track is the read-along version.
Along with the index at the back, there’s another pencil drawing of bats, this time not a close-up, but a distance shot of a colony’s flight.
Lee’s take: The story and art are both done with a true love for their subject.
J.J.’s take: Art and text combine to create a special experience.

LEE AND J.J. MACFADDEN are twins and voracious readers living in Bristol Tennessee. E-mail them at .