Adventure of Echo the Bat

by Ginger Butcher, Beth Broadhurst (illustrator)

This picture book introduces remote sensing to our youngest future scientists. The book tells the story of Echo to children ages 5—9. Landsat images of the five habitats Echo travels provides a backdrop for the adventure. The text emphasizes shape, pattern, and texture of the satellite imagery and engages children to lift-the-flaps within the images. When the flaps are lifted, pictures of the land features viewed from ground level are displayed. It also describes how a bat "sees" with his ears using echolocation.

Genres: Childrens, Science

22 pages, Paperback

First published December 31, 2000

Reviews

[Makaela]

This book was fun for me to read this year.
The story is about a bat named Echo. The book describes how a bat "sees" with his ears using echolocation. Echo takes you around and you see the five habitats where bats can live.
This book can get younger children involved in the book. The text emphasizes shape, pattern, and texture and engages children to lift-the-flaps within the images. When the flaps are lifted, pictures of the land features viewed from ground level are displayed.

[Kathy Piselli]

The 4-year-old picked this to read first out of the stack since she likes bats and sat still for half of it. It is for an older audience and contains not only a lot of information for a government document, but also easy to follow instructions for people who would like to attract and observe bats.

[Sammi Cuevas]

Good book, very educational at how bats live, move and their nature. The personification makes the characters relatable!

[Karen]

THIS WAS ONE OF THE CUTEST THINGS I'VE EVER SEEN 😍😭 And it taught me some things! Highly recommend. Thanks so much to the publisher for the ARC!

[Bobby]

The first half of this educational children's story is a beautifully illustrated picture book about a new-born baby bat learning from his mother how to survive in environments both urban and wild. At the story's midpoint, the baby becomes separated from his mother, and the second half of the story is a dramatic quest across the variegated Arizona landscape illustrated by black and white ink drawings and by Landsat maps featuring small panels that lift up, like those in an advent calendar, to reveal stages along the bat's journey. The text is rather dense for a picture book, but the well-paced story is full of chills and thrills (plus a couple of minor plot holes) and comes to a satisfying—if predictable—conclusion.

Ordering information and accompanying activities to teach kindergarten through fourth grade classes about Landsat data are available on NASA's "The Echo the Bat Book" Web site at http://purl.access.gpo.gov/GPO/LPS15834

The book has also been adapted into a puppet show! The script is available at https://sportdocbox.com/Hunting_and_S...

[Ryan]

You might be amazed at some of the publications put out by the federal government to teach kids about what they do. This book was put out by NASA to teach about map reading. It gives great information about bats and how they locate things, but put it in conjunction with maps. It is a really neat book that is probably only available from a federal documents library. But the good thing? Almost any public library can request a copy for a teacher or individual to borrow.