Stellaluna

Ages 4-8. After Stellaluna and her mother are attacked by an owl, the tiny fruit bat lands headfirst in a bird's nest. The mother bird allows Stellaluna to stay, as long as Stellaluna doesn't teach the bird babies bad tricks--like hanging upside down from the nest to sleep. Stellaluna wants to be as graceful as the baby birds, but she's graceful only when she's flying. A bat discovers Stellaluna, who's been separated from the birds, sleeping wrong end up. It calls other bats to see this strange little creature, and a very happy Stellaluna is reunited with her mother to learn proper bat behavior. When the birds visit Stellaluna's bat family, the little bat discovers that baby birds are as clumsy at being bats as Stellaluna was at trying to be a bird. Cannon's delightful story is full of gentle humor, and even young children will understand the little bat's need to fit in. Cannon provides good information about bats in the story, amplifying it in two pages of notes at the end of the book. Her full-page colored-pencil-and-acrylic paintings fairly glow: Stellaluna's depiction reflects the starlight and moonlight of the bat's name, and the pictures of the creature hauling herself onto a limb, hanging by her thumbs, and "joy-flying" are truly amusing. The facing pages of text include small, charming ink sketches that show what happens as Stellaluna's mother searches for her baby. (Reviewed Apr. 1, 1993)0152802177Chris Sherman

Stellaluna, Mother Bat's beautiful silvery baby, tumbles into a birds' nest one night and is raised as a bird. The struggles to conform are comical for baby birds and bat alike. In counterpoint to the lovely silver and blue illustrations of Stellaluna, small, crisp, pen-and-ink drawings depict the mother bat's search, until all are reunited in a happy ending. Factual note included. From HORN BOOK 1993, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Attacked by an owl, Stellaluna (a fruit bat) is separated from her mother and taken in by a bird and her nestlings. Dutifully, she tries to accommodate--she eats insects, hangs head up, and sleeps at night, as Mama Bird says she must--but once Stellaluna learns to fly, it's a huge relief when her own mother finds her and explains that the behavior that comes naturally is appropriate to her species. With a warm, nicely honed narration, Cannon strikes just the right balance between accurate portrayal of the bats and the fantasy that dramatizes their characteristics. Her illustrations, in luminous acrylics and color pencils, are exquisite. The appealingly furry, wide-eyed, fawn-colored bats have both scientific precision and real character; they're displayed against intense skies or the soft browns and greens of the woodland in spare, beautifully constructed (occasionally even humorous) compositions. Delightful and informative but never didactic: a splendid debut. (Picture book. 4-8) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.