Children's Books About Bats - Enjoy the Learning Journey

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Bats are fascinating for both boys and girls and when I recently searched for bat books to read with our twin girls I was pleased to find several sweet stories about a momma and her baby bat. Who knew that a book about a bat could make a mom get all emotional and teary-eyed? Not that it happened to me or anything. 😉

As I’ve previously mentioned, cozying up on the couch together and reading books is one of my favorite things to do with our children. It is a wonderful way to bond and connect with them as we allow the pages of a great story come alive.

We have personally read all of these wonderful bat books so I can recommend them to you without hesitation. Many of the books are fiction but there are some non-fiction selections as well.

These books can be read as part of a themed-unit on bats, to supplement lowercase letter “b” (b is for bat) in the All About Reading Pre-Reading Program, or just for fun!

Books about Bats

Nightsong by Ari Berk

Chiro is a young bat whose mother sends him off into the night alone for the first time. She lovingly gives him instructions before his flight. Chiro hesitantly goes out and begins to realize that he can use his senses to guide his way. He goes out farther than he is supposed to but makes it back safely before the new day begins. The beautiful illustrations and black washed background in the book give the reader a sense of the darkness and uncertainty that Chiro is experiencing when he first makes his way out into the world.

Oscar and the Bat: A Book About Sound by Geoff Waring

This book is a great springboard for exploring sound together with your child. Oscar, the cat, is interested in the many sounds around him and Bat helps him listen and think about these sounds that are beautiful, scary, harsh, gentle, deep and high.

Baby Bat’s Lullaby by Jacquelyn Mitchard

A sweet and simple rhyming story, perfect for bed, of a mother bat and her precious baby who spend the night flying and exploring together.

Bats Around the Clock by Kathi Appelt

It’s a 12-hour Batstand show and the bats are dancing through the night. This is a book that combines a silly story with telling time. The story includes a picture of an analog clock on each page as it goes through the hours of the day.

Stellaluna by Janell Cannon

A delightfully sweet book with beautiful illustrations. After an attack by an owl, Stellaluna, a fruit bat, gets struck down and separated from her mother. She falls into a birds’ nest with three baby birds and gets taken care of by the mama bird who feeds her insects. Stellaluna soon learns that the birds do things differently than she does and after being scolded by the mama bird she promises not to teach the birds “bad things”. Stellaluna eventually gets reunited with her mother and realizes that hanging upside down is not bad after all and that she is a bat and not a bird. She goes back to tell her bird friends and remains friends with them even though they are different.

Hello, Bumblebee Bat by Darrin Lunde

This book is told through a series of questions and answers that Bumblee Bat gives to help the reader learn and understand who he is. Just as the questions in the free printable for Bat Loves the Night can be used with your child to reinforce what they’ve learned, the questions and answers in this story can be used in the same way.

Magic School Bus Going Batty by Joanna Cole

Children who enjoy Magic School Bus stories will enjoy this book. Ms. Frizzle takes the parents on a field trip to teach them about bats and some of the students are concerned that she is actually a vampire bat who will turn their parents into vampires. The students go on a bat adventure of their own as the school bus turns into a bat and then they too turn into bats.

Bats at the Library by Brian Lies

A lively story about a group of bats that go to the library for a night of adventure among the books. Other bat books by this author that are just as fun are:

Bats at the Beach, Bats in the Band, and Bats at the Ballgame.

Bats (Usborne Beginners Nature) by Megan Culls

This non-fiction book is perfect for children just learning about bats because there are tidbits of information all through the book along with beautiful photos and illustrations. Our girls who are more into frilly and pretty things than creatures of the night really liked looking at the interesting photos in this book.

Bat Loves the Night by Nicola Davies

A book about a Pipistrelle bat who goes out to hunt for her evening meal and comes back to her baby as the sun begins to rise. Included on the pages of the story are interesting facts about bats.

****Click here for a Bat Loves the Night FREE Printable ****