This review originally published by The Children's Book and Media Review

This book explores the mystery of why little brown bats are disappearing and the problems their disappearance could cause. Because bats eat insects that do damage to crops and transmit diseases, bats are important to the ecosystem. Researchers learned that these bats were dying in large numbers in 2007, and since then they have tried to find out why they keep dying and why the bats were flying during the winter when they should have been hibernating. The book explores what hibernating bats need to survive, what the killers could possibly be, the process it took to find the killer, and the current work being done to try to save the bats.

This book is a good introduction to bats, the scientific process, and a few ways that animals could possibly go extinct. The back of the book has recommendations to help bats and a glossary to explain some of the more difficult vocabulary. The photographs of the bats help show the problems that these tiny creatures face. The way the book shows steps of a scientific investigation and possible causes, even the ones that turned out to be false, will please future scientists and other people interested in the scientific process. ( )

This was a really fun informational text to read. While it was an informational book, it was written like a mystery story which made it really interesting. I used this book in combination with Stella Luna as mentor texts for an assignment and it was really interesting to pair the informational with the fictional story. I would have this book in my informational book library. This book is appropriate for all levels but some words and concepts are a little confusing so I would only have older grades reading this book independently. ( )

Another excellent book by Sandra Markle. When I was a kid in PA we saw thousands of bats flitting about every night. Now that I'm an adult in New England, I don't see any. Gaah. ( )

This was a really fun informational text to read. While it was an informational book, it was written like a mystery story which made it really interesting. I used this book in combination with Stella Luna as mentor texts for an assignment and it was really interesting to pair the informational with the fictional story. I would have this book in my informational book library. This book is appropriate for all levels but some words and concepts are a little confusing so I would only have older grades reading this book independently. ( )