Favorite Bat Books for Kids

We often think of bats as a fall or Halloween animal, but these amazing creatures are around all year long. The list of bat books below will help preschoolers discover the amazing world of bats.

Our list includes fiction and non-fiction bat books from dancing and baseball playing bats to  true facts about their life cycle and where they live. There is also a list of bat activities you can do as you read about bats. Enjoy your adventures with this fascinating night creature.

GET A FULL WEEK OF BAT THEME ACTIVITIES IN OUR PRINTABLE PRESCHOOL LESSON PLANS.

Fiction Books About Bats

Bats at the Ballgame by Brian Lies

Bats at the Ballgame is a fun book that tells a rhyming story of a bat baseball game.  I love the twist on baseball game traditions like Cricket Jacks and Mothdogs. This is a list of the other bat books by Brian Lies: Bats at the Beach, Bats in the Band and Bats at the Library.

Bat Loves the Night by Nicola Davies

Bat Loves the night is a beautiful story of a bat’s adventures at night. This book is part non-fiction because of the information the story gives about bats. I love the illustrations and simple story.

Little Red Bat by Carole Gerber

Little Red Bat learns about winter from many different forest animals. The story tells of how different animals spend the winter and warn Little Red Bat to watch out for dangerous animals that could show up. The fall illustrations are beautiful and give readers a glimpse into the forest as the animals prepare for winter.

Bats Around the Clock by Kathi Appelt

In Bats Around the Clock, American Bandstand with Click Dark is the hippest place to be. Each hour the dancing continues as the bats jive, swing, twist and do the hokey pokey. This is a fun rhyming story with a throwback to the past and American Bandstand.

Nightsong by Ari Berk

Nightsong tells of a little bat that ventures out into the world on his own for the first time. He can only see darkness but when he uses senses and singing he can see. The illustrations are perfect for showing how bats can’t see but when they send out a signal they can see.

Stellaluna by Janell Cannon

Stellaluna is a famous story of a baby bat that falls from his home and lands in a birds nest. No bat list is complete without this sweet story.

Good Night, Bat! Good Morning, Squirrel! by Paul Meisel

Good Night, Bat! Good Morning, Squirrel! tells the story of a lonely bat who is looking for the perfect home, only to realize that it’s already home to a squirrel!

There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bat! by Lucille Colandro

If your kids loved the story about The Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly, they’ll love a Halloween twist with this story: There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bat!

Bat Jamboree by Kathi Appelt

This fun story, Bat Jamboree, tells the story of many musical bats putting on a fantastic show for all their friends!

Non-fiction Books About Bats

Bats by Kate Riggs

Bats uses great photographs and simple text to teach young readers about bats. Each page has 4 to 5 sentences with basic information about bats which is great for little ones just learning about bats.

Amazing Bats by Eyewitness Junior

Amazing Bats uses close up photos of bats and illustrations to teach you about how they see in the dark, what bats snack on, and why they take a winter break. The close up pictures are amazing to look at.

What is a Bat? by Bobbie Kalman

What is a Bat? gives lots of information about bats, types, what they eat, what they do, etc. This is a great book for kids that want to know more detailed information about bats. There are great photographs throughout that show bats in many different ways.

The Life Cycle of a Bat by Bobbie Kalman

The Life Cycle of a Bat is another book by Bobbie Kalman that has great photographs and gives detailed information. The book breaks down the stages of life for a bat and how they change.

A Place for Bats by Melissa Stewart

A Place for Bats gives information about where bats live around the country and how bats die when they lose their home or are killed by people. There are insets on each page they give information about different types of bats. The book has beautiful illustrations that show places where you can find bats, including your own backyard.

Bats: Hunters of the Night by Elaine Landau

Bats tells you all about bats and their world. The book features a photo of a bat on one page and on the opposite page information. The layout is simple which could be great for little readers.

Bats by Gail Gibbons

Bats is a classic Gail Gibbons book that uses illustrations to teach readers about bats. The illustrations include labels that will help readers learn the parts of a bat. I like that the text is small and the illustrations are the main focus.

It’s a Good Thing There Are Bats by Joanne Mattern

While bats are normally associated with Halloween because of how spooky they look, It’s a Good Thing There Are Bats will teach your kids all about bats and how they are helpful.

All About Bats: Explore the World of Bats! by Caryn Jenner

All About Bats teaches your kids about all the exciting and interesting features of being a bat!

National Geographic Readers: Bats by Elizabeth Carney

It’s always important to have reliable sources when learning, and National Geographic Kids is a great one! Filled with excellent pictures and tons of fun facts, this is sure to be a favorite!

A Full Week of Bat Theme Lesson Plans

Continue learning about bats with our printable lesson plan sets. Each set includes over 30 playful learning activities related to the theme, and we’ve provide different versions for home preschool families and classroom teachers so all activities are geared directly toward your needs.

Watch this short video to see just a few examples of the types of activities and printables included in this set:

Also available on Teachers Pay Teachers.

More Bat Theme Activities

Bat Crafts

There is an easy egg carton bat craft here on this site.

We also recently made a new version of the egg carton bat for fine motor play.

No Time For Flash Cards has a fun hand print bat.

A twist on the hand print bat can be found at Fun Handprint Art.

Fun A Day created a fun tie-dye bat with this craft.

Red Ted Art created a piñata out of their cardboard tube bat.

Bat Learning Activities

Here on Fantastic Fun and Learning we recently shared an –at word family game and a bat number matching game to go along with a bat theme.

Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas has several letter and number activities for bats as well as art activities for preschool and kindergarten age kids.

Kroger’s Kindergarten has several bat activities that are great for kindergarten and 1^st graders.

On Youtube, there is a fun song by Jumpstart all about Echolocation.

More Resources for Little Book Lovers

The best way to encourage a love of reading is to provide kids with many opportunities to engage with a wide variety of books that are of interest to them. That’s why we share so many books lists on Fantastic Fun and Learning. We want to make it easy for you to find great books your kids will love. Over the years we’ve also discovered some helpful tools for connecting kids and books.

Digital libraries are one very handy way to do this. Epic! is one of our favorite online libraries. It’s full of over 25,000 books, learning videos, quizzes and more for kids 12 and under…and it’s free for educators. Click here to learn more and sign up.

Book Boxes are another fun way to get kids excited about reading. What kid doesn’t love to get a special delivery in the mail?! The crew over at Bookroo finds the best little known books that you won’t already have in your library, and they send them to you each month. Take a peak inside a Bookroo Box here.

Book-Based Activities are also a lot of fun for kids. Jodie over at Growing Book by Book has saved us all a ton of time and created a full year of Book-Based Activity Calendars so that you can extend the fun with a special book each week.