HOME IN THE CAVE

A young bat explores cave ecology, squired by a pack rat with a flashlight.

In the gossamer-thin fictional overlay, little Baby Bat meets a pack rat named Pluribus who, with an illogical “We can use my flashlight and follow the scent trails I’ve made from room to room,” sets off on a tour. After encounters with a bird, a snake and the teeming residents of the guano-covered floor (“Wow, I had no idea that so many animals depend on us for food!”) Baby Bat crawls back up to the ceiling with a new appreciation for his—or at least his poop’s—importance. Pale, realistically drawn but indistinct insects and other cave creatures swarm across Bersani’s low-contrast colored-pencil illustrations, and the info-load is further expanded by several closing pages of additional information and discussion questions (“Are bats good or bad?”). An e-book version with extra features is also available.

Bat lovers (or haters, for that matter) aren’t going to learn anything here that isn’t offered more clearly and with less anthropomorphism elsewhere.