Book: Billions of Bats

Billions of Bats
Scott Nickel, 2007

Ugh. I've been dreading this review. This book reminds me very much of a book that I had the misfortune to pick up this year. You see, I watched a collegue's class for half an hour and his class were finishing a class book. It was a 'science literature' book, which basically meant the author was shooting for Magic School Bus in a short novel. It was the most horrendous piece of writing I think I have ever read. This book reminds me of that.

I've made a big effort to include graphic novels in my classroom over the last year and there have been some beauties from Smile, to Kat and Mouse to Amulet. This will not be one of the good ones. To begin with, it's not sure if it's a reader (you know, those awful books they use to 'teach' children how to read) or a science book in disguise. As a science book there's almost no science in it, and you're scrambling to figure out what the science might be. As a reader it's demeaning and boring. Some students might pick it up; I'm doubtful any will remember it.

The art was also dubious. A good comic draws your eyes in the right direction across the page. Several times this comic drew my eyes to panels that were not next in the sequence. I noted that this series came with advisers. My advice would be to dump the advice and concentrate on telling a good story. I'd put this one aside in favour of Magic School Bus or Max Axiom books for interesting books on science.

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