Baby Bat’s Lullaby

Do you ever do summer reading programs with your children through the local library? We do every summer, and our preschooler loves it. There are usually awesome games, treats, hands-on activities and of course, plenty of books to go with each theme. Then there are the prizes.

Our daughter always gets the weekly prize; we have read every day since she was in the womb and it’s easy for her to get the required number of minutes per day (this summer it was fifteen). However, this year she won a drawing for the first time, and was given a copy of Baby Bat’s Lullaby as her prize.

I cannot hail the wonders of this book enough! It’s one of the most eloquent, lovely and lyrical children’s books I’ve ever read aloud to my daughter. Written by Jacquelyn Mitchard, famous for her many novels and children’s books—including the Oprah’s Book Club selection The Deep End of the Ocean—it’s the simple tale of a mother bat speaking sweet, soulful phrases to her adorable baby as they live in a barn, chase mosquitoes at night and nap during the day.

That sounds so simplistic, I know; but Mitchard’s writing includes phrases like “My darling night creeper, all-morning sleeper, my baby bat” and “Go to sleep, barn-hall glider, twilight slider.” Any mother who has created little personal monikers for her babies can relate to these adorable descriptions, which also include “small new prince of the dark” and “little toe swinger.”

Speaking of adorable, the images in the book are also well worth seeing. Even without Mitchard’s fantastic poetry, Julia Noonan’s gorgeous oil and acrylic paintings provide warm, comforting scenes of bedtime and a mother’s love.

Whether kissing nose-to-nose, gliding into the barn or flying through the forest, it’s easy to see how the bats’ relationships are much like the ones we have with our own family. With glittering eyes and sweet “little teeth sugar white,” the bats, along with the background images, are portrayed in a very natural softness that’s perfect for bedtime, potty or calm-down reading.

I would love to see more books like this. Not only is the poetry and art beautiful, but it also deals with “darker” animals that people often fear. By showing that little bats need parental soothing, too, we give them much more depth than the media does, and we can show our children that there is much more than meets the eye with so much in our wondrous world.