Bats Are Good

Hooray for Bats! Bats are really very beneficial to our ecosystem yet they have gotten a bad rap over the years. Tired of getting eaten alive by mosquitoes? You need more bats in your neighborhood!

My family had a lot of experience with bats when I was growing up. In 1977 my parents bought an old (built in 1799) brick house. They still live there today. It has thirteen rooms, nine fireplaces, and bats. Every summer evening we could see their dark silhouettes swooping in the dusk sky catching their supper.

Sometimes the bats would get into the house. One night, I’m told (I slept through this event) a bat got into my younger sister Marcia’s bedroom. She wrapped up in her comforter, cocoon style and inch-wormed her way down the hall to our parents’ bedroom as Dad went to investigate.

Meanwhile the bat had followed Marcia and had perched on the wall in the corner of our parents’ bedroom. My mom called, “Buster, the bat’s in here now.” So Buster, that’s Dad’s nickname, came into the room and whooped, “Whoop, whoop.” The bat dive bombed the bed. Mom screamed and scrambled off of the bed and attempted to get under it…

…Only to find she didn’t fit. Not that Mom was too chubby, she’s actually quite thin. No, the bedframe was really close to the floor to accommodate the thick mattresses. Dad eventually got the bat outside and everybody went back to sleep. How I slept through all of this excitement I’ll never know.

Speaking of bats, Brian Lies’ Bats at the Beach, Bats at the Library, and Bats at the Ballgame are delightful and engaging! His illustrations are vivid and detailed, making the reader stop and take a closer look. The rhyming text is gentle and fun to read aloud, not forced. Brian Lies won this year’s Crystal Kite award for his newest book, Bats at the Ballgame, a NY Times best seller!

Find out more about bats at Brian Lies’ website then spend an enjoyable summer evening with your family outdoors observing the bats in your neighborhood. (You’ll need blankets to lie on and some bug repellant.) As they flit about, it’s fun to imagine they’re on their way to a new adventure!