As the owner of AdoptShoppe, I get the chance to read and review many children's books about adoption, but Little Lost Bat is a truly unique contribution to the genre. Sensitively told without being sentimental, Little Lost Bat recounts the story of a newborn Mexican free-tailed bat and his mother.
Their world is a dangerous place. The floor of the bat nursery swarms with hungry insects that are eager for tasty little bat babies to fall down, down, down. Outside the cave, mother bats are vulnerable to hawks, owls, and all manner of predators.
As you can imagine, since this is an adoption story, the little bat's first mother is lost to him. A new mother, whose baby was lost to her, listens to the sad "sh-sh-sh" cry of this scared and hungry little bat baby. At the end of story, a new family is formed and all are satisfied.
Written by the award-winning Sandra Markle, this beautifully realized story is unusual in the amount of factual information it shares about this particular bat species. Also, too, it doesn't flinch when telling of the demise of the little bat's mother. The death is sad but matter of fact. The delicately drawn illustrations by Alan Marks capture the rich darkness of the cave and wide expanse of the night sky – as well as the soft sweetness of the mother/baby bat relationship. Very nicely done.
Whenever I receive a children's story to review, I always read it with my own children. My youngest two are adopted from Korea. They are ages 8-1/2 and 7-1/2. They both gave Little Lost Bat a big thumbs-up. Though saddened by the death of the first mother bat, they liked how the baby bat and his new mother found each other at the story's end.
I reviewed this as an adoption story. (If your children liked Stellaluna, they should enjoy Little Lost Bat, too.) But easily, this wonderful storybook should interest and enchant all children who like stories about animal families. Parents, take note: you won't mind re-reading this one whenever you're asked.
Article comments
1 - Natalie Bennett
This article has been selected for syndication to Advance.net, which is affiliated with newspapers around the United States. Nice work!