Shadows of the Night pb: The Hidden World of the Little Brown Bat

by Barbara Bash

"A year in the life of the Little Brown Bat is beautifully depicted in both the text and the illustrations of this natural science picture book. Bash opens a world of shadows and night sounds to young readers, communicating in an unsensational way the creature's complexity and grace. Her watercolor illustrations are evocative and realistic, conveying mood as well as the motion of the small, swooping creature she describes." --Booklist "Beginning with the spring gathering of 'maternity colonies' in steeples, barn rafters and chimneys, readers learn about bat behavior, biology and the basics of echolocation. Luminous watercolors and lively information present the world's only flying mammals in a sympathetic, even endearing light." --Publishers Weekly "Bash's illustrative talents shine. . . . An excellent choice." --School Library Journal, starred review "An artist's eye is apparent in each dramatic spread. . . . Beautiful and informative." --Kirkus, pointer review

Genres: Nonfiction, Nature, Picture Books

32 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Barbara Bash grew up in Barrington, Illinois and has worked for many years as a calligrapher, illustrator and teacher of book arts and botanical drawing. She currently lives in upstate New York.

Reviews

[Cheryl]

Excellent non-fiction about bats. It begins with birth (the bat turns herself right side up to give birth) and explains how female bats form large nursing colonies. I liked the gentle factual nature of this book and learned quite a bit about how beneficial they can be (albeit a bit smelly!).

[Casey Godinez]

Casey Godinez’s book Review > Shadow of Night by Barbara
Bash is a wonderful example of an entertaining children nonfictional book. This book is written in an informal style. The illustrations make a clear depiction of the life into brown bats. I like how Bash used the last couple of pages to showcase different types of bats and where they are from. I would recommend this book.

[Matthew]

Presented in a narrative style, this book describes the surprising life cycle of little brown bats, but includes information on the bats in general in a generous endnote. Really liked this book. Well done.

[Lilia]

It is a very complete book where they tell us in a very entertaining way and with beautiful art the interesting life of bats.

[Amy]

The children weren't impressed with this book--I think they'd probably give it two stars, but I think that they were just not really in the mood to have stories yesterday. The book is informative, well done, and interesting, and I do believe that on a better day my niece would have loved this one. I think it's certainly worth checking out, and it would be great to read around halloween to dispel all of those myths about bats being scary, nasty creatures.

[Amy]

I read this book SO many times to my daughter when she was 3-4 years old and she was in a major bat phase. It is a big long for a bedtime story so I'd cringe a bit when she chose it (often!) but despite my weariness I couldn't skip over the words - they are all just right.