Enthusiastic Bats Play Ball in Brian Lies' Bats at the Ballgame

We’re creeping up on Halloween, and one of the animals most associated with that spooky holiday is the bat. Hence, when I saw recently that Brian Lies, who has already written and illustrated two adorable books imagining the secretive nighttime wanderings of bats, had come out with a new picture book, I jumped at the chance to read it. Well, I would have no matter what the month was; these books are thoroughly endearing. But the close proximity to Halloween made the book even more irresistible.

Brian Lies, whose previous books include Bats at the Beach and Bats at the Library, takes on the national pastime in Bats at the Ballgame, which involves a large gathering of bats at a baseball field, where one team of underdogs dreams of glory. As with his previous books, the illustrations are wonderfully detailed, with expressive characters who couldn’t be further from terrifying. Yes, the book takes place in the dark and so everything looks a bit shadowy, but the bats are as cute and fuzzy as any mouse in the Charming Tails line of figurines. You just want to reach into the pages of the book and hug them. Or at least I do.

Bats at the Ballgame is narrated in rhyme, from the perspective of a spectator rooting for the losing team. The rhyme and rhythm are consistent, the wordplay clever, and Lies incorporates several references to the classic baseball poem Casey at the Bat. Additionally, traditional baseball elements get the bat treatment. For instance, “A flying vendor flutters near. / ‘Mothdogs! Get yet mothdogs here!’ / Raise a wing and catch a snack: / ‘Perhaps you’d like some Cricket Jack?’” Other parts of the book feel more universal, such as this stanza, which taps into the nostalgia and sense of intergenerational connection that baseball can inspire: “Grandbats talk of better times, of fields and heroes past. / Their thoughts slide homeward through the years, across eternal grass.”

As great as the narration is, the acrylic paintings are the best part of this book. The bright-eyed bats watch the game with rapt expressions; I especially love one illustration of a young bat reaching out plaintively to his bespectacled grandfather, a ball caught on the fly clutched in his wing, clearly worried that his team is going to lose horribly. Also noteworthy is the series of sepia-toned images representative of Grandpa’s memories of the game when he was young. Meanwhile, there are expansive two-page spreads showing that everyone in the audience is watching the game upside-down, and the ability of the players to glide to the next base makes the game even more exciting.

Of the three bat books that Lies has published thus far, Bats at the Library is my favorite, since it contains so many clever references to great works of literature. But Bats at the Ballgame is a wonderful addition to the series, especially for those who have soft spots in their hearts for baseball.