Yippee! It’s Emma Reynolds debut author/illustrator picture book – Amara and the Bats. It’s delightful. And. At the bottom of my review, you’ll be rewarded with five, VERY intriguing bat facts from Emma herself.
Amara LOVES bats. Really, really loves them – ever since one got caught in their attic when she was young. When an expert came to take it away and release it safely into the wild, she got to see them close-up, from that point she was hooked… and was determined to discover as many bat facts as she could! I love how Emma Reynolds slips these smoothly into the narrative.
A move to a new town brings its own worries, but most of all… Amara finds there are NO bats. They all disappeared when the bulldozers moved in to the park.
Inspired by eco-warriors she reads about in her magazine, Amara knows that if she wants something to change… then it starts with her.
I love how Amara galvanises her new class into action, how their individual love of animals spurs them on to create a bat friendly sanctuary. Amara learns patience as she realises that change won’t come over night, I enjoyed how Emma builds up that gentle tension as Amara waits and waits and waits… will the bats return??
I love the contrast Emma has created between the night and day scenes, with the gorgeous inky blue hues for the night scenes. The spreads with the community working together are full of joy and energy.
Amara and the Bats is an uplifting picture book about how one person’s actions can make a BIG difference.
And those bat facts from Emma Reynolds? Here they are…
5 amazing bat facts!
– It is a myth that bats are blind! They actually have very good eye sight. Bats use echo location to accurately find their food in the dark and navigate obstacles while flying.
– Bats usually give birth to just one baby bat pup a year.
– Did you know that 70% of the tropical fruit we humans eat is pollinated by bats?! That means without bats we wouldn’t have bananas, mangoes, or cocoa…. which means without bats we also wouldn’t have chocolate!
– The oldest bat recorded in the wild was 41 years old! Wow!
– The earliest bat fossils found date back over 52 million years ago in the Eocene period!
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