Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Given how important echolocation is to bats, it should come as no surprise that they're secret music-lovers. That's the case with Lies's colony, anyway, back in a fourth book. When night falls, the bats head to a summer theater where act after act takes the stage-there's a string section that hangs upside down while playing, as well as singers in a variety of genres ("Next up, there's a country song-/ some lonesome bat done someone wrong"). Humorous touches abound in Lies's characteristically polished acrylic paintings, and the bats' infectiously joyful music-making will have readers reaching for the nearest noisemaker or instrument. Ages 4-8. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 3-Lies's latest series installment lends itself nicely to an audio version. Narrator Chris Sorensen's voice has a soothing quality that will inspire repeat listens. The bats in this story are just waking up in the spring and flock to the sounds of music at a local theater, where at night the bats pick up the instruments and create their own musical entertainment. Fans of the series will easily be able to imagine the bats in the band without the help of illustrations as Lies's story is descriptive and Sorensen's narration is easy to follow. This would be a great addition to collections for younger listeners.-Betsy Davison, Cortland Free Library, NY (c) Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
The creator of Bats at the Beach takes his bat cast to the theater, where various bat acts perform rock, country, classical, and the blues--music whose counterintuitive salubriousness inspires the best of many good rhymes: "It's hard to figure--eyes get wetter, / ...so how is it that we feel better?" Chiaroscurist Lies was born to depict the nighttime stage. (c) Copyright 2014. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Yet more bats tumble from Lies' belfry, this time to ignite a darkened summer theater with the gift of music.Lies, who has ushered bats through a night at the library, the beach and the ballpark, invites a colony into a playhouse after lights out. There, he carves out a piece of the small hours for his readers, that strange time of collywobbles and spooky quiet. The playhouse is anything but, as the bats have decided to light up the dark with "a little night music." In tuneful couplets laced with fluid if demanding words like "sitar" and "improvise," the bats get busy with jazzis that Dizzy, with those cheeks?and rockis that Leon Russell, in Uncle Sam's hat?and a camellia-adorned bat woman with a broken heart: "Her feelings fill the room with blue," a room that Lies has draped with indigo. The paintings are full of mood and spot-lit color, the bats upside down and right-side up, the rhyme both casual and emotive. There is no doubt that Lies has made an effort to please adult readers with plenty of allusions: In what passes as their dusk, a bat takes his fiddle to the roof. But the bats never fly over young readers' heads. They are there to entertain, and that they do.Again with the bats, evoking another call of "encore!" (Picture book. 4-8) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
