Bat: In the Dining Room - Hardcover

Crescent Dragonwagon is a Marshall Cavendish author.

Kindergarten-Grade 3. It would be difficult to imagine a less poetic theme than that of a bat accidentally trapped in the posh dining room of a summer resort. However, Dragonwagon has woven an evocative, lyrical prose poem in this tale of one frantic flying mammal and one quiet young girl who really cares what happens to it. While the excited, well-heeled patrons escape to the lobby, and the tuxedo-garbed staff run for brooms and other weapons, Melissa remains alone in the dining room. Unhurriedly, and with calm resolve, she lures the bat to an emergency door, where it flies into the starry night to freedom. The spare text combines internal rhyme and interesting word juxtapositions to create the appropriate mood. The contrast of uproar and quiet, agitation and calm combine to build a story from one brief incident. Schindler's beautiful illustrations, a combination of colored pencil and watercolor on pastel paper, become a harmonious complement to the text. The artist has juxtaposed the luminous views of a summer night on a lake and the almost-deserted dining room with cartoonlike portraits of the hysterical summer guests, overly dressed and coifed. His careful rendering of the terrified bat in full flight captures the essence of the animal's beauty and predicament. Not since Janell Cannon's Stellaluna (Harcourt, 1993) has there been a more attractive bat epic. "Batman and Robin" can wait; young readers will have a much better time at this summer place.?Martha Rosen, Edgewood School, Scarsdale, NY
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.