Baby Bat's Lullaby [Library Binding]

Jacquelyn Mitchard (Author), Julia Noonan (Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 2 and up

Mama and her precious baby bat wake up at dusk ready to take a flight into the sky. Together they soar and explore, relishing each tender moment spent with each other until bedtime at dawn. New York Times best-selling author Jacquelyn Mitchard's soothing bedtime rhyme and Julia Noonan's soaring images capture the simple joys and special love shared by a mother and child.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

PreSchool-Grade 1–Mitchard infuses poetic freshness and a delicately compelling tone into the familiar format of a bedtime story, as a mother bat comforts her little one: "Dearer than night,/Brown eyes bright,/My jewel so soft,/My dancer aloft,/My baby bat." Done in acrylic and oil paints, the striking and endearing artwork reflects the creatures' environment, activities, personalities, and–most importantly–the tender affection they share. The illustrations encompass images as diverse as a red barn surrounded by newly ploughed fields, a close-up of the young bat stalking mosquitoes, and the cozy wood-beamed rafters of home. Baby bat's play among the white-pink mallows, set against the backdrop of a deep blue sky that's fading to daylight, is both dramatic and charming. However, it is in the depictions of the relationship between mother and child that Noonan displays her gift for echoing and amplifying the emotions of the descriptive verses. The idea of going to sleep at daybreak is unique in a bedtime story, and lovable bats aren't hanging in droves from children's bookshelves. With its spare, exquisite language and its evocative artwork, this lullaby is as soothing as it is entrancing.–Susan Weitz, Spencer-Van Etten Schools, Spencer, NY
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

PreS-Gr. 1. In the second picture book from Mitchard, the author of such popular novels for adults as The Deep End of the Ocean (1996), lilting couplets pour forth as an adoring mother bat extols her baby's virtues: "Go to sleep, / Small new prince of the dark, / Quick dancer in the sky park." There is more versifying here than either story or information; baby bat is not nocturnal but a "night creeper / all-morning sleeper." In dispelling myths about rabid, bloodsucking creatures of the night, though, this glides on the air currents of Cannon's Stellaluna (1997). Noonan's flying rodents are cute as buttons and just as benign, and her palette couldn't be better for a bedtime book. The same dusty pinks and lavenders casting a twilight glow upon Baby Bat's wide-awake antics will have a decidedly soporific effect on diurnal youngsters. Pair this latest tooth-achingly sweet meditation on mother love with Stellaluna and with nonfiction about bats, such as Sandra Markle's Outside and Inside Bats (1997). Jennifer Mattson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 2 and up
  
• Library Binding: 32 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins (August 17, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060507616
• ISBN-13: 978-0060507619
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 10 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,605,668 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jacquelyn Mitchard was born in Chicago. Her first novel, The Deep End of the Ocean, was published in 1996, becoming the first selection of the Oprah Winfrey Book Club and a number one New York Times bestseller. Eight other novels, four children's books and six young adult novels followed, including The Midnight Twins, Still Summer, All We Know of Heaven, and The Breakdown Lane. A former daily newspaper reporter, Mitchard now is a contributing editor for Parade Magazine, and frequently writes for such publications as More magazine and Real Simple. Her essays and short stories have been widely anthologized. An adjunct professor in the Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program at Fairfield University, she lives in Wisconsin with her husband and their nine children

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sweet & Soothing, June 18, 2006

By 

Wantz Upon A Time Reviews (Chicago) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Baby Bat's Lullaby (Hardcover)

Baby Bat doesn't want to nest down for the day, so Mother Bat must convince him that it's a good idea. To wear him out, she takes him on an exploratory flight, encountering many beautiful and curious sights.

With gorgeous illustrations and sweet verse, Baby Bat's Lullaby will capture young children's imaginations. The soft details open youngsters' eyes to the simple beauty of a misunderstood creature, while the rhythm soothes the day's anxieties away.

Truly a classic-to-be, I recommend this title to all parents with young children.

Reviewed by Christina Wantz Fixemer, whose daughter adores this book.
6/17/2006

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Baby Bat bat's a 1000, September 18, 2004

By 

R. Johnson - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Baby Bat's Lullaby (Hardcover)

Outstanding...sweet, lovable, soft and cuddly. Mitchard does it again with her rich mosaic of work and Noonan's illustrations. A MUST for every "trick or treater" this year...and what a treat it is. Keep 'em comin' Jacquelyn!

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Baby Bat's a joy, September 22, 2004

By 

A. Knol - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Baby Bat's Lullaby (Hardcover)

Baby Bat shines with Jacquelyn Mitchard's lyrical descriptions and Julia Noonan's excellent illustrations. I love Mitchard's writing, but I never expected her to tackle bats! But this paean to Mother Love, with its lovely rhymes and luminous pictures of soaring bats, is going to win over both kids--and their parents.