A Little Night Music! Bats in the Band by Brian Lies

We sing for our supper, in brightening mood.
Swooping and diving, we're finding our food.

But each of us sense that something's not right.
And then when a bugle blast shatters the night,

Relief on our faces is easy to read.
A little night music is just what we need!

After a long, cold winter's hibernation, the bats swarm out of their belfry, eager for their first meal of the season.

But bats do not live by bread (er, moth and mosquito) alone. Their souls are hungry for music and they follow the bugle call to a darkened clapboarded summer theatre, where the first bat roadies are already setting up the lighting and sound systems on stage.

Some professionals fly in with their instruments and chart sheets in tow, while amateur music makers improvise instruments--a bull fiddle spoon, a pocket comb harp, and a row of hanging keys for percussionists. A conductor in formal attire taps the podium and an impromptu ensemble takes the stage. There's a Ravi Shankar look-alike bat on sitar, and a solemn, rotund B.B. King bat tuning up on his acoustic guitar. Even a bagpipe bat puffs up his bag to start the drone.

As a babysitter bat takes the diaper set away for their own nursery singalong, the choral bats take to the risers.

All together, rafters ringing...
It's as though our souls are singing.

Then a string quartet sets up, their music stands suspended from the ceiling, violins, cello, and viola fingered bat-style, upside down.

If you haven't seen a bat quartet,
You really ain't seen nothing yet!

One act after another takes the stage--a one-bat band, a country combo singin' about somebody done wrong. A sultry Lady Day bat, with trademark gardenias in her hair, takes the stage as the spotlights go blue, with cameo appearances by The Prez with shades and sax and a Dizzy trumpeter, his cheeks puffed, holding his horn high, blowin' the blues. Everyone gets into the act, even an air-guitar band, while a young bat with a huge mallet appears (hidden in the foreshadows, so to speak) as all the musicians crowd the stage for the final performance. The little percussionist is poised for his big moment.

The music soars. Finale's here, the ending of the song.
Here it comes! It's going...going.... GONG!

Forthcoming today, celebrated author-illustrator Brian Lies' latest, Bats in the Band (A Bat Book) (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014), hits a high note in the fourth book in this best-selling series. Lies' couplets are poetic and his illustrations are splendid, each bat rendered as as individual, whether they're cuddling a toddler or banging the bongos. Lies is one of those wonderful artists whose nighttime scenes use the limited light with exquisite, glowing artistry. Light shines through the listening bats' translucent ears, glistens off their whiskers, and sparkles in their eyes, while Lies slyly tucks in visual jokes that grownups will savor (CD vendors in the lobby feature albums by Echo and the Locators, The Beastie Bats, Batman Turner Overdrive, and Bat Company and famous musicians appear in bat guise on stage).

As the sun comes up and the tired bats wing home, hearts full of song, a lone bat fiddler on the roof plays... and we can almost hear what we know is his song.... "Sunrise, sunset, sunrise, sunset ...."

Bravo, bats! Bravo, Brian Lies!

Not to be missed are the other splendid picture books in this series, Bats at the Beach (A Bat Book), Bats at the Library, and Bats at the Ballgame (A Bat Book). (See reviews here).

Baseball Bats: Bats at the Ballgame by Brian Lies

Restless wings begin to itch--
excitement's at a fever pitch.
At last it's time, and with a sigh,
we hustle out to diamond sky.

Hurry up! Come one--come all!
We're off to watch the bats play ball!

From barn and belfry, cave and cupola, the bats stream forth into the darkling sky and soar to their appointed meeting place, the canopied diamond where, under the unaccustomed bright lights of night baseball, two traditional rivals meet for their annual face off. The smallest bats blink at their first sight of the overwhelming flood of light and color:

We wing from dark to dazzling bright,
startled by the stunning sight
of colors like we've never seen:
the browns so brown, the greens so green.

Old and young, they seem to take their seats as they hang from the soaring canopy while the pageantry of the game unfolds. Groundsbats prep the field, rolling a shaker of powdered sugar between the bases to mark them with fresh white lines and groom the mound with forks, and vendors flap above the stands calling out their wares. "Mothdogs Get yer mothdogs here!" "Perhaps you'd like some Cricket Jack?" Bats in patriotic red perform a flag flyover, and after the anthem comes the long-anticipated call--Play ball!

Something changes with those words.
We feel a magic shift
and ride the currents of the game
as time is set adrift.

The first innings are scoreless, as the pitchers duel and the scorekeeper bat chalks up a series of goose eggs on the big board. One young bat has his own magic moment as he snatches a ball hit foul and clutches proudly it to his fur. And then it's time to stand and stretch for the seventh inning singalong:

"Oh, hang me up in the rafters!
Hang me up by the toes!
Buy me some beenuts and Cricket Jacks..."

In Brian Lies' just published Bats at the Ballgame (Houghton Mifflin/Harcourt, 2010) the gameplay heats up in the final innings, and with new moments from this game to add to those faded but golden memories of the olden days, the jubilant fans stream out, just ahead of the new dawning day, back to their rafters and cubbyholes, one little fan still clutching his prize as he falls asleep--the foul ball he snagged all by himself at the big game.

In our dreams that perfect green,
our refuge from the drab routine
of headlong flutter, flurried flight...
until another baseball night.

Until again we hear the call:
"Welcome, fans--and now... play ball!

As in his earlier acclaimed Bats at the Beach and Bats at the Library Lies' amazing artwork triumphs over the difficulties inherent in designing his illustrations, all "shot" in the dark, so to speak, endowing his paintings with a luminosity which makes the details--the bats' fur and whiskers and their bright eyes, for example--glow with their own light. Likewise, his visual and verbal play will spark many a chuckle of recognition--as when, shown in the sepia monotones of memory the old bats fondly remember high points of bat baseball, "Bat" Ruth as he swings mightily for the fences, a Gehrig-like ballplayer humbly standing before the microphone at his last game. Readers will also notice that some pages need to be inverted to get a true bats-eye view of the scene. Kids (of all ages) who have been fortunate enough to experience the game and its traditions, with all its bright lights and colors and drama, will get this book instantly and will find much in the brilliantly detailed illustrations to pour over.

Brian Lies again comes through in the clutch: this one is over the fence and out of sight!

Bats at the Library by Brian Lies

The word spreads quickly from afar.
A window has been left ajar.
Can it be true? Oh, can it be?
Yes! Bat night at the library!

Bats and libraries seem an unusual combination, but in the hands of talented illustrator-author Brian Lies, creator of the earlier New York Times best-seller, Bats at the Beach, it's a natural.

In Lies' amazing chiaroscuro paintings, bats swoop through a crack in a casement window and exult in the chance to enjoy all the wonders of a darkened library, a library with stately dark wood vaulted ceilings and oaken shelving bulging with volumes, all lit with the glow of a single table-top lamp. The young ones, new to the library experience, zip about, printing their images in the copier, splashing in a drinking fountain turned into a baby bat water park and pool, and making shadow figures on the wall with a handily placed overhead projector.

But soon the young ones follow the example of the veterans and settle down to the pure enjoyment of literature. It's story time for the batling newbies, and the little ones experience the classics of children's literature anew, visualizing the stories in their own terms--Make Way for Batlings, Pippi Longwingling, Goodnight, Sun, Winnie the Bat, Alice and the Cheshire Bat, and Chitty Chitty Bat Bat. Some hang upside down beneath heavy wooden tables, while one "toddler" bat, wearing a pair of "air wings," leans back in his mother's lap as he becomes lost inside the stories.

All too soon their time is up.

What's that light? A lamp? The moon?
Our bookish feast can't end so soon!
It feels as though we have just begun,
But now we have to leave our books half done.

But there's always hope for the book-loving bats.

But maybe a librarian
Will give us bats the chance again,
And leave a window open wide
To let us share the world inside.

There's so much to see inside Bats at the Library--visual jokes to make us chuckle, the glorious lure of being in a daytime public place by night, the charm of the faux-medieval hanging chandeliers and the soft stuccoed walls setting off the joyful bat invasion of this oh-so-human haunt, all set forth in amazing art. And, for the literary, there is the welcome celebration of the joys of books which beckon, like the beacon of the golden table lamp, through a window which leads to a rich world inside.

Sand, Surf, and Moonshine: Vampirina at the Beach by Anne Marie Pace

When the summer moon is full, a beach trip is an epic way to spend the night.

No need to pack the sunscreen! Vampires surf at night!

Vampirina and her family load up the big black hearse, and with her surfboard tied to the roof, head off to the ocean side just as the the sun is sinking into the sea.

And with the full moon rising in the sky, there is plenty of light for these denizens of the dark, as they unload their cooler, the beach blanket and umbrella to ward off those moonbeams, and stake out their spot on the sand with their R.I.P. marker. The sea bats circle as they slather on their SPF50 moonscreen, and then they're ready for fun.

Little brother Frankie builds his haunted sand castle. There's a treasure chest hunt for all the little monsters, and then it's time to hit the waves. Big sister Vampirina hands Frankie his floatie, reminds him to always swim with a buddy, whether it's another little boy or a sea monster, and to stay in sight of the life guard.

Her sisterly duties discharged, she is ready to swim out beyond the breakers for some surfboarding.

Vampirina puts her ballerina skills to good use, as she goes into a perfect plie' as she stands up to catch a gnarly swell, which turns into a monster WAVE. Uh-Oh!

WIPEOUT!

Vampirina bounces back, but decides it's time to do some leisurely snorkeling, and with a friendly little werewolf, she explores an enticing shipwreck down deep.

And as the moon begins to sink in the sky, there's one more thing Vampirina just has to do--join the Massive Midnight Dance Contest, where she partners with her werewolf friend, a sure-enough Moon Doggie, and brings home the first place trophy.

In "Countess" Anne Marie Pace's third book in series, Vampirina at the Beach (Disney Hyperion, 2017), there are plenty of pseudo-scary visual gags and vampire puns for young monster fans seek out in this unusual oceanside outing. Ace artist Leuyen Tham provides the moonlit illustrations with lots of comic touches, including a four-page gatefold that depicts the grand finale of the Midnight Monster Dance scene in all its pre-dawn gory glory. Share this one with Brian Lies' classic, Bats at the Beach (A Bat Book) for a spectacular pair of lunar-lit reads.

Other Vampirina books are Vampirina Ballerina and Vampirina Ballerina Hosts a Sleepover (see reviews here).

Put Some Fun into Bedtime with These Books!

If your young reader is one of those wonderful kids with a sense of humor, these books for the preschool and early elementary set are good additions to their bookshelf, and they'll give adults reading them out loud something (besides lights out) to smile about, too):

For the preschool-Kindergarten set:

Mommy? by Maurice Sendak, Al Yorinks, and Matthew Reinhart. Scholastic, 2006.

This high-tech pop-up book features a typical monster-taming Sendak protagonist, a toddler who wanders into a suitably spooky-looking house calling “Mommy?” and proceeds to de-“bolt” a Frankenstein monster, nip the knickers off Wolf Man, and unwind a mummy’s wrappings, until he finds a suitably maternal monster at last.. A slightly macabre take on Are You My Mother?, this book has some sly fun for the adults who will undoubtedly have to “read it again!”

For the Kindergarten-Grade Two reader:

Cha Cha Chimps by Julie Durango. Illustrated by Eleanor Taylor. Simon & Schuster, 2006.

Ten bed-bound chimps slip out to cha cha the night away at Mambo Jamba’s, where they count down from ten to zero as they hokey-pokey with a hippo, macarena with a meerkat, and belly-dance with a cobra. When a hip Mama Chimp “hustles” them home to jam in their jammies with a sitter, she goes back to boogie the night away. Kids hearing this story will pick up the refrain “Ee-ee-oo-oo-ah-ah-ah, ten little chimps do the cha cha cha” by the second time around.

Bats at the Beach, by Brian Lies. Houghton Mifflin, 2006.

Bats break out the moon-tan lotion and frolic on a moonlit beach, doing all the things kids love doing by day on the sand. Rhymed verse dances through enchantingly dark but luminous night time fun. (See if the kids notice that the author is hanging upside down on the “About the Author” back flap!)

Trosclair and the Alligator by Peter Huggins. Illustrated by Lindsey Gardner. Star Bright Books, 2006.

Despite dire warnings from his Pere, Trosclair and his dog Ollie brave the waters of Bee Island Swamp, inhabited by the world’s biggest alligator. When treed by Gargantua, Trosclair (channeling Brer’ Rabbit), pretends to offer up Ollie instead of the honey-(and bee-)filled beehive. Predictably, Gargantua “bites," Trosclair drops the beehinve into his open mouth, and the Trosclair’s trick and the subsequent bee stings rid the swamp of Gargantua forever.

<The Most Perfect Spot by Diane Goode. HarperCollins, 2006.

When Jack takes Mama, wearing her best pink hat and unknowingly trailed by a stray spotted dog, to “the most perfect spot for a picnic,” each place they choose results in disaster, as they fall into the lake, are pelted by horses kicking up mud, survive a runaway carousel, are surrounded by a pack of yapping dogs, and make a run for home in a downpour. In two-page spreads, the careful reader will see the spotted dog as the author of each adversity. Back home at last, Mama and Jack, followed by the dog dragging the bedraggled pink hat, settle down to a picnic on the floor, with the “dog they named Spot, the most perfect Spot!”

For the sophisticated not-too-old-for-picture-books set (and anybody else who’s still alive):


Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich and Other Stories You’re Sure to Like, Because They’re All About Monsters, and Some of Them Are Also About Food . (You Like Food, Don’t You? Well, All Right Then.,.) by Adam Rex. Harcourt, Inc., 2006.

A real tour-de-force by author-illustrator Adam Rex, with rhyming spoofs of the lifestyles of such monsters as Wolfman (hair clumps in his roommate’s drain), Dracula (spinach in his teeth), Invisible Man (can’t get a decent haircut), Yeti (“Don’t call me BIGFOOT!), and the Phantom of the Opera (has writer’s block because he can’t get “The Girl from Ippanema” and other ditties off his mind). The copyright page even features a snow angel left by The Invisible Man. A book for all ages (even those old enough to KNOW the tune to “Girl from Ipanema”)!

"Reading Between the Lions:" The Night Library by David Zeltser

It was the night before my eighth birthday, and I was having trouble falling asleep.

My door opened. "Would you like your present now?" my father asked.

"A book," said my mother. "I thought we could read it together."

"A book?" I stared at it. My parents knew I liked toys, games, movies--not books.

But the boy's restless sleep that night is broken by a sound like loud purring from outside, and when he raises the window he sees a large lion looking up at him.

I thought it was a statue until I saw the enormous paw prints in the snow.

"My name is Fortitude, the lion said."

And somehow the boy finds himself climbing on the large lion's back and racing past Yankee Stadium and through Manhattan to the steps of a large marble building, with The New York Public Library carved over three bronze doors. Inside the lion delivers him to a huge room with towering arched windows, long tables, and many, many thick books on the shelves. But when the boy reaches for one, it seems to leap from his hands....

"Adult books can be difficult to grasp," said the lion.

But in the Children's Room the boy recognizes many books that his grandfather used to read with him--The Tale of Peter Rabbit, The Cat in the Hat,--and The Polar Express, which they read together every Christmas before he died. The boy asks to take his favorites home.

"That can be arranged," said the lion

And it is all taken care of, in David Zeltser's latest, The Night Library (Random House, 2019). The New York Public Library's iconic stone lions, Patience and Fortitude, are as good as their word, for on the boy's doorstep the next morning is his own library card, brand-new except for some very large tooth prints!

Emily Dickinson wrote "There is no frigate like a book... to take us lands away," but a pair of iconic stone lions do a pretty good job at that, too, as they reawaken the joy and closeness of sharing a book for the boy in a memorable nighttime journey. Artist Raul Colon's illustrations render the midnight scenes in pale moonlit colors and dreamlike images, along with the solid but fantastic figures of the pale, monumental lions, all juxtaposed with the wispy memories of the boy's grandfather that recapture the magic of reading. "This should please bibliophiles of all ages," says Booklist.

For another flight of storytime fun for Book Week or National Library Week, share this one with Brian Lies' proven kid-pleaser, Bats at the Library (A Bat Book) (review here).

Sleep Tight, Slugger! Goodnight, Baseball by Michael Dahl

TAKE ME OUT TO THE BALLGAME!

A boy and his dad head out to the giant stadium just outside of town, joining the crowd pushing through the turnstiles, and emerging into the sunlight with a view of that glowing green field with its bright white bases and baselines! For generations little baseball fans have gone out with their parents to share the fun and rituals of the game.

WE EAT POPCORN AND HOT DOGS AND DRINKS IN OUR LAPS.
WITH THE NAMES OF OUR FAVORITE TEAM BRIGHT ON OUR CAPS!

It's a memorable experience for a young boy, who hopefully lugs along his glove and joins the crowd in the bleachers at Rocket Stadium to wait for the umps to call "Play ball!"

And this game is everything a young fan could want--the crack of the bat, a homer hit way over the fence, and best of all, a foul ball that amazingly lands... right in the young fan's own glove, a ball that he'll always have to recall his first ballgame with Dad.

And when the big game is over, and the rising moon, looking like a scuffed-up game ball, rises over the city, there's one happy boy, holding his glove with the baseball folded safely inside, who curls up contentedly and falls asleep in the car on the way out of the park.

GOODNIGHT DIAMOND, GOODNIGHT GRASS.
GOODNIGHT, HOMEPLATE, WHERE EACH RUNNER RAN PAST.

Author Michael Dahl and artist Christine Forshay capture an idyllic view of a child's first baseball game in their Goodnight Baseball (Capstone Young Readers) (Sports Illustrated Kids) (Capstone/Sports Illustrated Kids, 2013), with Forshay's illustrations extending the simple text, adding the heady ambiance of the size and colors of the field and the excitement of the crowd. Along with Brian Lies' wonderful Bats at the Ballgame, this book makes a nice introduction to the ballpark experience. And... read Dahl's book last for its calming image of the young baseball fan back home in bed snuggled up and sleeping, still holding his glove and souvenir ball.

Root, Root, Root for the Home Team: Take Me Out to the Ballgame

KATIE CASEY WAS BASEBALL MAD.

SHE HAD THE FEVER AND SHE HAD IT BAD!

Katie Casey is one cat who knows what to do with a bat, and when she heads out to Sluggers Stadium to see her favorite team in action. It's a standoff between the big bat of Crocodile and the trick curve ball of Giraffe, and the crowd is ready for a dandy duel between this duo.

In rhyming verse, this frame story leads into the famous words of the song "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" which becomes the narrative of the big game. Big, vivid illustrations by Amiko Hirao take youngsters through the game, and Grammy winner Carly Simon's CD performance of the famous song in Take Me Out to the Ball Game (Imagine, 2011) make this one just right for singalong fun. Pair this one with Brian Lies' Bats at the Ballgame for big time ballgame story times.

Pooch Playoff: Homer by Diane deGroat

Alex loves baseball, but his dog, fittingly named Homer, if anything, loves it more!

Homer doggedly follows Alex to ball practice and home again, and when Alex finally collapses into his bed and falls asleep to dream of play action under his posters and pennants, Homer is there on the rug right beside the bed. But Homer is a dog with a secret life.

...ONE SPECIAL NIGHT...

HOMER MET HIS FRIENDS AT THE BASEBALL FIELD.

"IT'S GOING TO BE A RUFF GAME!"

The cover of Diane de Groat's and Shelley Rottner's latest team effort, Homer [HOMER] [Hardcover] (Orchard, 2012), tells all. Rottner's photo and art collages pitch this tale with all the verve and creativity of their earlier hilarious hit, Dogs Don't Brush Their Teeth!, as skillfully manipulated photos of their canines are digitally adapted to the ballpark. We see the opposing teams, the Doggers and the Hounds, suiting up in their locker rooms and psyching themselves up in their doggy dugouts as the groundskeeper pooches prep the infield and the umps put on their chest protectors and take the field.

The ballpark itself has been set up specially for canines, with a convenient fireplug provided for the paws that refreshes near the on-deck circle, and the championship game is on.

The teams are well-matched, but as the game goes into the final inning, Homer's team, the Doggers, are trailing 3-0, and it looks like the Hounds are going to emerge top dogs after all.

But then, the Doggers rally.

ROCKET HITS A SINGLE!

The crowd begins to roar as Whitey gets on base, and Rocket races to second. And then Lucky manages to hit the pitcher's sneaky money pitch, a droolball!

The bases are loaded. It's all up to Homer as he steps up to the plate. The roaring crowd quiets as the count quickly goes to 2 and 0. Then Homer swings mightily and a long drive soars into center field. Is it a long out, or will it clear the fence and cinch the series for the Doggers?

Does Homer hit a homer? The outcome of this tail-wagging tale may not be in doubt, but in art as well as sport, it's not who wins or loses, but how you play the game, and the team of veteran author de Groat and illustrator Rottner show they've got game in their second canine collaboration. Kids will love the doggone funny visual humor as well as the verisimilitude of the digital ballpark and the varied canine breeds as seasoned ballplayers toiling on the mound and squaring off at the plate. As Kirkus Reviews points out in their play-by-play, "The format is everything here.... Even the endpapers are part of the fun, taking the form of doggie baseball cards. A howlingly good time."

Pair this one with Brian Lies big hit, Bats at the Ballgame, for a two-bagger baseball storytime treat.

Doze-apalooza: SnoozeFEST by Samantha Berger

AT THE CENTER OF SNOOZEVILLE DWELLS THE SLEEPIEST SLOTH, SNUGGLEFORD CUDDLEBUN.

NOW THAT SLOTH COULD SLEEP, FOR MONTHS AT A GO.

THE FEW TIMES SHE RISES, SHE MOVES IN SLOW-MO.

But Snuggleford is not without her aspirations. Her passion is attending the biggest sleep festival in the land, the annual SnoozeFEST. She rests up all year to get in shape for the big event, packs her comfiest comforters, fluffiest feather bedding, and poofiest pillows, and heads over to the venue at the NuzzleDome.

All the pro sleepers stow their gear and head for vendors' row.

SNUGGLEFORD STROLLS THROUGH THE STANDS.

FOR POSTERS AND T-SHIRTS AND SWAG FROM THE BANDS.

She hits the hot-milk-and-honey bar for a retire-riffic toddy and settles into her homey hammock while the opening cradle-rocker bands--Dormant Gabbana, Louis Futon, Alexander McDream, Diane Firstinbed--do their sound checks. Then the house lights go down and Chamomile Rage take the stage for the first set, a real snore from the reactions of the crowd, who settle deep in their sleeping bags. Poets go up for a sleepy slam onstage, and the classical ensembles take the limelight-the Quiet Quartet, Tranquility Trio, Drowsy Duet, Sweet Dreams, and Deep Hiber-Nation--lulling the fest-goers into an altered state of soporific consciousness.

"I'll See You In My Dreams" is the theme song of Snuggleford Cuddlebun and the other somnolent concert-goers, in Samantha Berger's latest, Snoozefest (Dial Books, 2015). A "lazy, hazy" spoof of music festivals and the notorious energy of sloths, Berger buddies with artist Kristina Litton, who offers some sharp visual humor in her funny festival signage and the loveliest lantern-lit nighttime scenes since Brian Lies spotlighted his Bats in the Band (A Bat Book). Doubling as a tummy-tickling music festival takeoff or as a sleep-provoking bedtime story, this one hits the hay, um, mark right on target. Snooze on, Hiber-Nation!!