Have you ever wanted to learn about bats? Well, I did. So after reading Anne Earle's fabulous book, Zipping, Zapping, Zooming Bats, I learned that bats are innocuous, useful and interesting mammals. Let me tell you what I have assimilated.
Bats are considered nefarious by many people but they are actually very timid and friendly. Bats are also considered good luck in China. Many emperors like to have illustrations of bats on their possessions in order to bring them serendipity. Some kids in Midfield, Alabama even formed a club called B.A.T. which is an acronym for Bats Are Terrific. The purpose of the club is to inform people how harmless and useful bats are to people.
Speaking of usefulness, let me illustrate how bats are helpful to humans. Since bats are insectivores (eat only insects), they prey on bugs that bother humans like the menacing mosquito. Bats at Bracken Cave, near San Antonio, Texas, eat approximately 500,000 lbs. of insects a night! That is equal to 250 tons!! That is useful because those insects could have obliterated farmers' crops and people's plants. Also, bats help humans by pollinating flowers and allowing the fruit to grow.
Bats are interesting too! Most bats use echolocation. This is when the bat finds the location of an object or prey by sending out sound waves and listening for the echo. There is at least one bat that does not use echolocation. It is the California Leaf-nosed bat. This bat listens for the insect's footsteps or wing beats to find its meal. Another interesting detail about bats is that they are expert fliers. These mammals also use their wings to catch a scrumptious refection. The prey gets caught in the bat's wing membrane and the bat flips it onto its stomach and then gobbles it up. Next, bats hang upside down in caves, under viaducts, and some attics. They use their talons to get a grip of the ceiling. While hanging upside down, they may choose to sleep or groom themselves. Bats keep themselves as clean as cats by using their tongues to keep themselves immaculate. The last interesting detail that you may want to know is that some spelunkers accidentally kill bats by waking them during their hibernation. When the cave explores wake up the bats, the bats have to use a copious amount of fat to find a new resting spot. Now they won't have enough stored up food (or fat) to make it until spring.
Now that you have read my report about Anne Earle's fabulous book, Zipping, Zapping, Zooming Bats, I hope you have learned that bats are innocuous, useful and interesting.

I love this book and so do my 5 year old son and 7 year old daughter. It is filled with great pictures of bats and all kinds of bat facts. It lets you know that bats are nothing to fear and even shows you how to make a bat house in the back of the book. Did you know that bats are the only flying animals that nurse their young? Bat "pups" hang together in large groups called nurseries and each mother returns at least twice during the night to feed her little pup. Did you know that there is a bat in Australia that has a six foot wing span? I didn't until I read this book...don't worry they eat fruit! I liked bats before...now I like them even more.

This book was about bats like the flying fox and vampire. It taught me all about different kinds of books. I recommend it.

It has a lot of activities, from nursery rhymes and songs to longer stories, and activities like finding objects in pictures and creating stories. I think this may be my daughter's favorite. We take it on all vacations because it has everything. We love it and I've given it as a gift many times.

My daughter has checked this book out of the library at least 5 times. Everytime we go this is the book she wants to get. I am now wanting to purchase it for her.

I am a primary level teacher in a private school. Our curriculum is based on a program from California which usesthematic units and a project approach to allow the students to explore thier own interests while learning within the theme. Our themes are based on particular time frames in history, and every two weeks we "visit" a different area of the world within our current time frame. The Pre-Primary teacher and I have found this book to be a valuable resource for our curriculum. In this book we have found information on holidays and festivals, games and sports, foods, fashion, performing arts, music, visual arts and so much more! I have used this book to help me find information to present to the students, as well as to find information the children needed for their project presentations. And it is all listed by culture, so everything is easy to find. The teachers of Bright Ideas School really like this book! Thank you

Eyewitness Art: Perspective is a history of the development of perspective in art. It's profusely illustrated with drawings, with photographs of instruments that artists used to cope with perspective and also with photographs of famous paintings from the Italian Renaissance, the Northern European Renaissance and later.

It's intended for children from 9 to 12, but any adult interested art will enjoy spending time with this book.

A wonderful story of what life was like in the rugged back country of Idaho. I enjoyed every page of this book.

I work in an elementary school library. We always use this book as an example for "Poems" when teaching about poems. The poems are fun for children, and not to long. The rhyming is fun and of course kids can relate to the "food" items they rhyme about. I would recommend this poem for all beginning poem & rhyme readers. Have fun-read a book!

What can a picture tell you about a person? The answer is quite a bit as you view these penetrating portraits of southern writers. A writer's tools are words to convey a story. Photographer Curt Richter uses his tools of lighting, mood, camera and the subjects themselves to reveal a visual story whose impact goes far beyond words.

Over a seven year period, Curt scoured the country taking pictures of those writers associated with the south. His labor was not in vain for he blessed us with outstanding visual views of these writers not seen before. These are not a compilation of formal studio portraits nor are they casual snapshots. You are given a series of sepia toned pictures whose faces, postures, hues and eyes that reveal something more about the subject that meets the eye.

Ralph Ellison looks like an elder statesman as he peers into the lens. Larry King appears to have a haunting quality as his off focus face gives us a smile. Eugene Walter looks like a supplicant in prayer or is he just fooling us? Let your mind and imagination decide as you see this wonderful display of southern authors. For those of you who are collectors of some of their works, you will be delighted with their pictures.

Robert Coles has written a foreward to the book introducing us into the world of southern writers and the culture of the south. Ann Beattie provides us with her observations regarding this collection through her afterword. Now relax, open this book and reflect upon these gifted writers of prose and poetry who have shared their wares with the world.

I have never been so captivated by photographs that truly depict their subjects. I have seen other works by Curt Richter and he truly is the finest portrait photographer of our time. Congratulations on a sensational effort. It came at the right time of year because I am giving this book to all of my friends and family.

It's so wonderful to see a group of photographic portraits that dispense with the current trend of the snapshot and at the same time have the courage not to follow a formula. The photographer is obviously aware of the history of portraiture occuring even before the advent of photography. As they say in "Fiddler on the Roof" -- "tradition." Thank God for some tradition. It seems so avant-garde. I throughly enjoyed the book.

This text provides a quick, concise review of the pimary topics covered on emergency medicine exams. I found it to be a good way to prepare for inservice exams and the written boards.

Family Nursing Practice was required reading for one of my Family Nurse Practitioner classes. Its interesing reading, but rather lightweight regarding useful material. The authors use frequent case studies and examples that are carried on throughout each chapter, which help to illustrate the important points and to hold the reader's attention.

As usual, Lonely Planet have attacked this project with vigour and research and produced a comprehensive guide to the Middle East. However, as is the problem with the "Shoestring" editions, a vast amount has to be left out, an enormous of amount of information must be precised in order to produce a managable, helpful guide for a region. Local knowledge of an area is vital to ensure that the correct points, places of interest and general information are included. Unfortunately, LP have hit slightly wide of the mark with this region. It is an area which is full of history and a culture that is very sensitive to the western ideals and my advice would be to purchase each country's book separately. Whilst this is a more expensive and even bulky alternative, simply sell, swap or send home the discarded books.

I understand that LP are in the process of producing further separate guides thus breaking down this region again, which will be excellent. The guide itself, however, is a good read though!