Customer Reviews

The Bat-Poet

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This my favorite children's book. It is as good-- perhaps not as accessible-- as Charlotte's Web. It teaches real lessons about poetry and about loneliness. It asks questions that it can't answer: why do we like to read about things that frighten us? And it conveys the distinction between writing a poem that is praised and writing a poem that evokes real feelings.

That The Bat-Poet is so little known has always been a mystery to me. Then again, considering the state of publishing in this country, maybe it's not such a mystery. And maybe it's just as well that word-of-mouth is what brings new readers to the Bat-Poet.

Randall Jarrell has given us a beautiful little story here of a bat and Maurice Sendak has given us some wonderful illustrations in the form of black and white drawings. There is not much to not like about this work. The children love it, and the adult reading it to the children will find it just as interesting and hypnotic as the child, if not more so, but on a different level. The text is wonderfully simple and a pure joy to read. I recommened this one highly.

I am thirty-seven now and a teacher; I probably chose this profession because of Mr. Erick Burkett, who taught me and my chums when we were in sixth grade. He was patient and funny. He held us spellbound when he read L'Engle's "Wrinkle in Time". The next year he got married and moved away, but he saw some promise in me (I was constantly writing stories in sixth grade and showing them to him for his approval) and he wrote some very fatherly and wonderful letters to me until I was a senior in high school. When I was a senior he sent me "The Bat Poet" and encouraged me in my writing. Of course I wrote reams of poems after reading it. This is a very special book, especially for timid young students with dreams of being published.

A beautiful story, beautifully written, about a little bat who composes poetry. One of the best children's books I've ever read; I order several copies at a time and give them for birthday presents.

This book is a gem. It's tender, clever, and deftly written. It's wonderful for reading aloud. I had trouble finding it for years, and I'm so pleased to see that it's available again.

We had a "bat book drive" in my daughter's class because they needed more research material about bats for a project they are doing than we could find in the local library. Instead of only purchasing scientific-sounding non-fiction, I was also looking for story and poetry books in which the charateristics and habits of bats were woven throughout the stories and poems. I read this book to my eight-year-old daughter the night before we took it to class. She demanded that I give her the book so that she could read it again herself. And, with stars in her eyes, stated that the poem at the end about a bats life was the most beautiful thing she had ever heard, and that she would be memorizing it. It was amazing how much she had learned and remembered about bats after the first time through the book. Lovely illustrations as well.

Just because this is children's literature dosen't mean it is just for children. If you have an appreciation of literature or even if your not a big reader, this story will warm you heart with its wonderful characters, lovely story and beautiful writing. So simply written, it can be read to children, so beautiful the writing people older than 8 will defenitely will enjoy!! Randall Jarell is in my opinion, one of the kings of children's literature!

This is a charming book and a great way to introduce your child to poetry. Full of beautiful illustrations by Maurice Sendak better known for Where the Wild Things Are.

This was a Christmas present for a couple boys, ages 7 and 5 who also got to build, on Christmas Day, bat houses with their dad and grandpa. So the day was special in two ways. Maybe the bat houses will still be around in a decade. I'm sure the book will be.

This book has become quite collectible for the illustrations from Maurice Sendak.He made very detailed black and white drawings of the forest and the animals. The story is about a young bat who could not sleep in the daytime like he was suposed to, and he got to see how different the world was when the other bats were fast asleep. He then tries to explain to the other bats what it is like, and he even makes up some poems. It is not a poetry book, but a very funny adventure.