Grade 5-8. Superb photographs are perfectly matched with an insightful, lyrical text as Ackerman recounts a personal trip to explore the bat diversity of Texas in company with Merlin Tuttle, the leading authority on these aerial flitterers. While much bat data is imparted on these glossy pages, it is the author's unique viewpoint that empowers the narrative. She sees bats as spending "their whole lives yelling at the world and each other" and describes a mass emergence as "a swarm of flying black peppercorns." Tuttle's marvelously detailed, full-color photos present an enormous variety of bats, from the tiniest bumblebee bat of the Southeast Asian rain forests to the more common little brown bat of urban parks and suburban backyards. Teamed with such titles as Laurence Pringle's Batman (Scribner, 1991) and Betsy Maestro's Bats (Scholastic, 1994), this book would make an excellent science/literature unit. However, this handsome title will be even more appreciated by readers who delight in fine writing, personal curiosity, and brilliant photography.?Patricia Manning, formerly at Eastchester Public Library, NY
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Product Description
Best-selling author (A Natural History of the Senses) and naturalist Diane Ackerman takes a beguiling look at the complex world of the bat--one of the most varied and mysterious of animals. Ackerman describes a visit, with distinguished photographer and bat expert Merlin Tuttle, to the Big Bend national park area of Texas where she observes the nightly emergence of over 20 million bats from Bracken Cave and helps track them for study. In addition to conveying the experience of observing, handling, and studying bats firsthand, Ackerman relates information on a variety of bat species, as well as feeding and reproduction habits, the remarkable sonar they use to navigate and hunt, their migration and hibernation patterns, and their role in the ecosystems they inhabit. More than 50 spectacular color photographs enliven this distinctive, informative, and accessible addition to the natural history shelf.
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