Catherine Badgley

What is it like to be a young bat? That question receives answers in spades in Catherine Badgley’s book, Pippa’s First Summer. Pippa and her twin brother Click are born in a barn on a farm. They spend their first few weeks of life at their mother’s side and make friends with the young bats that live on the same rafter. Pippa and Click quickly learn how to fly using echolocation and discover which bugs are the tastiest. They also play games with their friends, and learn that even though the world is fun, it is also rife with dangers like owls, humans, and even horse hairs! Pippa’s first summer allows her to grow up and become a strong, brave bat.
Pippa’s First Summer is a departure from normal fiction books about animals, in that it is largely factual about the lives of big brown bats. For the most part, it is a naturalist coming of age story for bats in which Pippa and her brother and friends have many adventures and misadventures that real bats would have. Each chapter has a realistic illustration of one or more bats at its beginning, and often the illustration is of the situation that will occur in that chapter. It is interesting to learn about a bat’s activities, but at times the book drags and it seems overly long for what it actually covers. There is a part of the book in which Pippa’s brother is brutally killed by the babysitter of the human kids at the house on the farm. This scene was clearly intended to convince readers not to panic if a bat enters the house and to allow it an exit, but the scene is actually quite graphic and may disturb more sensitive readers. While this book is somewhat entertaining, it will not appeal to people who are not fans of bats. Best suited for grades 5 and up.… (mehr)