Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
Stellaluna
Board Book
For ages 3 to 5
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2007 ISBN: 978-0152062873
One day Mother Bat had a baby whom she loved dearly. She named her baby Stellaluna and every night she carried her baby on her chest and she flew across the forest to find food. One night Mother Bat was attacked by an owl and Stellaluna lost her grip and fell through the air until she landed in a tree.
Stellaluna held onto a thin branch for as long as she could, but eventually she got so tired that she let go and she dropped into a bird’s nest. The three bird chicks in the nest were rather surprised by the sudden arrival of a baby bat but they did not say anything. Stellaluna hung upside down near the nest and there she stayed until her hunger got the better of her. Eventually she climbed back into the nest and allowed the mother bird to feed her insects, which Stellaluna thought were disgusting.
The mother bird tolerated Stellaluna until her chicks started to hang upside down. Then she put her foot down. Stellaluna could stay with the birds only if she agreed to “obey all the rules” that the mother bird had. Stellaluna agreed to the mother bird’s terms and so she slept in the nest, ate bugs “without making faces,” and when it came time to fly she did her best to land on branches upright, as the other birds did. It was not easy being a bat who was pretending to be a bird.
In this delightful board book children will discover that friendships can develop between very unlikely characters. With humor and sensitivity Janell Cannon tells a story that will appeal to children and adults alike.
