Nightsong
In this gentle midnight allegory, a young bat is encouraged by his mother to strike out on his own into the wide world outside their cave. Little Chiro, far more adorable than your average bat, thanks to the puppy-dog face Long gives him, is worried about not being able to see in the dark, to which his mother offers the reassurance that there are other ways to see . . . Use your good sense. Kids up on their chiropteran knowledge will see where this is going: Chiro floats through intimidating black washes until he begins to sing, a ray of light emanating from his mouth that illuminates the path ahead as he flies past the woods, through a flock of geese, and to the pond, where he gobbles contentedly on tasty bugs. Paralleling good sense with both a song to light a path and with a bat’s echolocation might require kids to flex their conceptualization muscles a bit, but Long’s gorgeous artwork, in which the warmly hued bat flits through steep, rich darkness, goes a long way toward making this one a winner. Preschool-Grade 1. --Ian Chipman