Little Lost Bat
Sandra Markle, , illus. by Alan Marks. . Charlesbridge, $15.95 (32pp) ISBN 978-1-57091-656-4
Markle (the Outside and Inside series) turns her attention to the Mexican free-tailed bat set in central Texas's Bracken Cave, a nursery cave home only to female bats and their babies. "Even though the rock cave is as huge/ as a cathedral, it's steamy hot/ from the body heat of/ millions of female bats." The descriptive narrative immerses readers in this intimate setting, as it describes one bat's birth and early days. Markle sugarcoats nothing, least of all the predator-prey relationships. A lurking snake "snags a baby bat for dinner." The mother of the title bat traps and eats a moth, only to become a barn owl's supper a week later. Readers might be surprised at this turn of events, given previous snuggly nursing scenes. ("For three days and nights, he searches/ and cries for her to find him.") Marks, who collaborated with Markle on
Reviewed on: 08/07/2006
Genre: Children's
Open Ebook - 978-1-60734-042-3
Paperback - 32 pages - 978-1-57091-657-1