Friday, February 5, 2010

Bats at the Library

by Brian Lies

Thumbs Up.

This is an excellent picture book.

After word goes out that the librarian has left a window ajar, the bats all flock to the library. They wait all year for these rare opportunities. The bats do all kinds of library things, photo copy themselves, go on the computers, and, best of all, read books.

The artwork is a definite high point. The illustrations are beautiful and so creative. The bats group together to make Human Shadows. They look at books abouts moths and the Fibonacci sequence. They hang upside down from the tables and the reader bat props the picture books upside down while he reads. Each time I look at the book I see more witty things.

The best part of the story is the visual allusions to many works of classic children's lit. I'm not going to tell you more; you'll have to check it out yourselves. But I will add that this is the kind of book that makes a person curious about any of the alluded to stories he or she may not have read yet. (Just yesterday I picked up Drummer Hoff from the library.)

It would make an excellent gift for a child.

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