Stellaluna

When I go out with my dog at night, one of the things I love to watch are the bats as they do their nightly dance in search of insects. When the kids were little we used to sit outside on hot summer nights and watch them fly overhead. I've always been a fan of bats, as long as they were outside and not stuck in the house!
Bats belong in their proper environment, as Stellaluna finds out.
Stellaluna is a baby fruit bat. At night, as her mother flies out looking for delicious fruit to eat, with Stellaluna cuddled against her mother's body. Stellaluna's mother loves her very much and will do anything to protect her. But one night the mother is attacked by an owl, and drops Stellaluna. Stellaluna lands in a nest with three baby birds. When the mother bird comes back to find her there, she agrees to adopt Stellaluna, but Stellaluna must follow the rules of the nest. No flying at night, she must eat the bugs and worms that the mother bird feeds her, and she cannot hang upside down.
Stellaluna does her best to listen to her new mother, but it is not easy for her. She always feels different from her nest mates, and wonders why. One day as she and her bird family are out flying, it becomes dark. The other birds hurry back to the nest, because they can't see but Stellaluna continues to fly. Eventually she stops to rest, but rather than hanging upside like a bat, she rests like a bird. Another bat comes along to ask why. Stellaluna tells the other bat her history. To her joy, the other bat turns out to be Stellaluna's mother! Finally Stellaluna understands what it means to be herself.
Stellaluna was written and illustrated by Janell Cannon.   Janell Cannon was a librarian who incorporated her love of animals with an understanding of what it meant to be different. With that theme in mind, she came up with several wonderful books. Stellaluna was her first book.  Janell Cannon came up with the concept when doing a library project on bats. She wanted the bats to be shown in a positive light, but the only books she could find were out of print. So she decided to write and illustrate her own book that showed bats in a positive light.
In addition to Stellaluna, she has written about a hyena, Pinduli, a cricket named Crickwing in which she tackles the concept of being a bully, and Verdi a tiny spotted snake. She also wrote a story about creatures called Fuzzheads. All of her books are simply written and beautifully illustrated.
 Now that it is summertime, sit outside and enjoy the story of Stellaluna. As it gets dark look up in the sky and watch the bats in their nightly ballet!