Library Bats Take Flight

Jennifer Taber, HMH publicist, and Kate O’Sullivan, Brian Lies’s editor, pose with two stuffed bats made especially for them by Lies.

Librarians across the nation are on the lookout for bats—three stuffed, plush bats by the names of Green, Red and Blue, to be exact. Following the success of Bats at the Library and Bats at the Beach, Brian Lies is drumming up anticipation for a third volume, Bats at the Ballgame (Houghton, 2010) by sending the three intrepid travelers (equipped with passports) on a whirlwind tour, with the goal of visiting as many libraries as possible, each for two weeks at a time.

Librarians are instructed to take digital photographs of the visiting bats “having fun” somewhere in the library and to sign the “travel log,” before sending each bat on to its next event. Those intrigued by Green, Red, and Blue’s journey, can view Lies’s Web site, where the bats’ pictures from the tour and their travel logs are posted. A few highlights: Green Bat “met everyone who works at the Wilkinson Public Library [Telluride, Colo.], plus some dogs, and lots of kids at storytime”; Red Bat made friends in Brunswick, Maine, at the Curtis Library (he’s pictured on the Web site with a papier-mâché friend named Griffin); and Blue Bat read about Janell Cannon’s picture book Stellaluna on a computer at the Anaheim Public Library (“I kind of miss the feel and smell of paper, though!”).

Participating libraries will be entered in a drawing for a book signing by Brian Lies in 2010. Additional updates and a new “Book Bats Bat Tracker” map are in the works for the Web site.