Bats

This is a fine starter book for kids interested in different animals...Bats: Mammals that Fly is our second encounter with the Animals in Order series. What I like a great deal about this is that it takes time at the beginning of the book to look at (briefly) what makes an animal a bat, not a bird or a mouse (which they sometimes look like), getting into what traits exactly make a bat. The book then goes into the "order" of living things which details the kingdom, phylum and class , order, family and species (with a handy visual chart for reference, great for younger kids, so they can SEE how it works rather than just read it or have it read to them). This is one of the better features of this series. Next in goes specifically into where bats fit into animal kingdom, breaking it down (in words and pictures again) to kingdom (animal), phylum (chordate), class (mammal) and order (bat). The book also talks a bit about where bats of all types and sizes fit into food chain in North America, South America, Africa and Asia. Bats: Mammals that Fly goes from there into an overview of fourteen species complete with full page, color photographs for each one (our boy loved this best), which were quiet nice. This section includes Family, Common Example, Genus and Species and Size for each bat discussed...from the tiny (1.25 inch to 3 inch) Brown Bats of North America to the larger Fruit Bats of Africa (1.5-12 inches). Each animal is given one full page for written description and one full page color photo...excellent for bringing the animal to life for the readers! Overall, a fantastic way to introduce various types of bats to your curious young reader! What you get in Bats: Mammals that Fly is an excellent overview of all types of bats, with information that takes the scare out of these nocturnal hunters...our kids even came to appreciate the South American vampire bat and enjoyed the section near the end about how European explorers came home with stories of the bats and they were later incorporated into folklore and legend. Now when we see bats at night, the kids speculate as to which bugs are their favorite and what fruits their cousins all over the globe might enjoy! I was impressed with and pleased to find that at the end of the book the author/publisher also included a short recommended reading list and some really great web pages to do more research on...the kids in particular LOVED this! Five stars all the way, we had a great time reading this and I hope read more of these very soon! I give it a solid two thumbs up, a great starter resource for young readers!