Bailey the Bat and the Tangled Moose

Gr 2-4–In this twist on the bedtime blues, nocturnal Bailey can’t sleep in the daytime. Restless, disobedient, conflicted, Bailey flies into the forest in response to a plaintive cry. A young moose is caught in an old bit of rope, with hunters near in one direction and a pack of wolves in the other. Suspense! Bailey and the colony save the moose, and the hunters do not shoot the wolves. Bailey apologizes for leaving the roost, but is “grounded” (upside down), dreaming of more adventures. This first effort by Lawrence and Landry packs information about bats into an exciting tale with an intrepid heroine. The hitch is that the story is longer than a standard picture book, but the typeface is a bit small for emerging readers. Linocut digitally colored illustrations often use a bat’s-eye sky-perspective, sometimes swooping down for a moose close-up, and, once, giving a wolf’s-eye-view. The strong colors of the illustrations make this perfect for readers on the cusp of enjoying graphic novels.