Night Creatures

Children's Literature - Kristin Harris

These "First Discovery Books" are gems. The almost square, small format makes them comfortable to handle. This selection is about owls, barn owls and bats. Owls eat their prey whole, and later spit up a small pellet of bones, fur and feathers. We see a pellet and a page full of some of the bones that might be inside that pellet. The bones could be of mice, sparrows, shrews or a mole. A clever device of printing on clear acetate allows us to see the owl eggs as they are in the nest, and with a turn of the page, see the other side of that same piece of plastic with the new little owlet emerging from the shell. The illustrations are vivid, realistic but not tight and rigid. The night scenes are particularly inviting. We learn the difference between barn owls and true owls, as well as being introduced to numerous varieties of bats. There are over fifty titles in the series.