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shellyhartner's review against another edition
informative
inspiring
fast-paced
4.5
When my sister and I reminisce about our fondest childhood memories, one that always comes up is piling into the back of our grandparents' station wagon on Friday nights in the late winter and early spring to see the UWM Science Bag. These were (are!) free presentations put on by the university for community members, by professors and local science experts.
At their worst, Science Bag presentations were dry lectures and made for a very boring hour sitting in a dated lecture hall, after which we were rewarded with a soft-serve cone from the McDonalds across the street from campus.
At their best, they were engaging presentations that captured our imagination, usually with small explosions or light-bending tricks, and made us forget that the ice cream was waiting for us.
My sister and I both agree that the best of all the Science Bags was the one with Merlin Tuttle and his bats.
You read that right - Dr Tuttle not only showed up for the presentation, but he brought a whole cast bats with him. I seem to remember that the bats each came tied securely into a mens' sock, but it has been a very long time and I may be making that little detail up. And Dr. Tuttle assured us that at some point we would get to see them fly through the auditorium.
Fly? Through the auditorium? We were on the edges of our seats. It was exciting and terrifying at the same time. Would they fly for our heads? Tangle themselves in our hair as we'd been warned by older relatives?
As we waited to see the bats, Dr Tuttle taught us about the different types of bats and about why we should not fear them. We heard the love and excitement that he held for his bats and we began to love them too. Any fears we had to begin with melted, and by the time the bats were finally allowed to fly from the front of the auditorium to Dr Tuttle's assistants at the back, we were at least their second biggest fans and wanted nothing more than for them to swoop close to us.
At the end of the presentation, Dr Tuttle invited the children up to the front of the hall to meet his bats in person. We waited impatiently in line to pet one of the sweet little bats, and it was worth every second.
This book by Dr. Tuttle is the next best thing to being at one of his presentations. It shows the same love and concern for bats, and seeks to educate people, with our often irrational fears of bats. It does a great job of explaining the actual risks involved with interactions with bats and also describes some of the bats North Americans are most likely to encounter. It's a quick read and very informative.
Thank you Dr Tuttle for tirelessly working to protect bats by educating humans about better ways to interact. And thank you for the best Science Bag ever.
At their worst, Science Bag presentations were dry lectures and made for a very boring hour sitting in a dated lecture hall, after which we were rewarded with a soft-serve cone from the McDonalds across the street from campus.
At their best, they were engaging presentations that captured our imagination, usually with small explosions or light-bending tricks, and made us forget that the ice cream was waiting for us.
My sister and I both agree that the best of all the Science Bags was the one with Merlin Tuttle and his bats.
You read that right - Dr Tuttle not only showed up for the presentation, but he brought a whole cast bats with him. I seem to remember that the bats each came tied securely into a mens' sock, but it has been a very long time and I may be making that little detail up. And Dr. Tuttle assured us that at some point we would get to see them fly through the auditorium.
Fly? Through the auditorium? We were on the edges of our seats. It was exciting and terrifying at the same time. Would they fly for our heads? Tangle themselves in our hair as we'd been warned by older relatives?
As we waited to see the bats, Dr Tuttle taught us about the different types of bats and about why we should not fear them. We heard the love and excitement that he held for his bats and we began to love them too. Any fears we had to begin with melted, and by the time the bats were finally allowed to fly from the front of the auditorium to Dr Tuttle's assistants at the back, we were at least their second biggest fans and wanted nothing more than for them to swoop close to us.
At the end of the presentation, Dr Tuttle invited the children up to the front of the hall to meet his bats in person. We waited impatiently in line to pet one of the sweet little bats, and it was worth every second.
This book by Dr. Tuttle is the next best thing to being at one of his presentations. It shows the same love and concern for bats, and seeks to educate people, with our often irrational fears of bats. It does a great job of explaining the actual risks involved with interactions with bats and also describes some of the bats North Americans are most likely to encounter. It's a quick read and very informative.
Thank you Dr Tuttle for tirelessly working to protect bats by educating humans about better ways to interact. And thank you for the best Science Bag ever.
kerrianne's review
5.0
Bananas, avocados, dates, figs, peaches, mangoes, cloves, cashews, carob, agave, the baobab tree (of life!): All reliant on bats for survival. And yet at the time this book was written (1988), bats were our most endangered land mammal.*
This little book filled to the brim with bat facts was written by one of the United States' foremost bat scientists, and was written expressly to combat people's (misplaced, unnecessary) fear of bats.
I dig how no-nonsense it is, and how earnest. Tuttle wants everyone to understand how beneficial bats are, how essential to so many ecosystems (from the water to the tallest canopies), and how easily and peacefully humans and bats can coexist.
There's even a section on how to construct your own bat house to attract and safely house bats on your property, + a section at the end called "A Beginner's Key to American Bats," both of which greatly appealed to the bat nerd in me.
It's a hopeful little book, even as Tuttle has seen first-hand how devastating humans can be to creatures they irrationally fear. I'll never forget Tuttle's description of men throwing sticks of dynamite into caves where bats were roosting, sleeping peacefully during winter months, not a harm or a danger to anyone.
That we as humans have tried to valiantly to decimate so many wild species that this earth needs to survive continues to be testament to our inability to be good stewards of the land we often occupy as if it were ours and no one else's.
That's the story with bats, just as it is with so many creatures on this planet: They're in trouble because of us. Because we won't leave them well enough alone.
"Even more important, we need bats whether we like them or not; their loss poses serious, potentially irreversible consequences to the environment that we all must share." -pg. 51
*The most recent data I could find on bats via the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) lists 24 bat species as "Critically Endangered" (facing imminent risk of extinction), 53 others as "Endangered," and 104 bat species as "Vulnerable" to extinction.
[Five stars for the hope we won't ruin everything before it's too late, and for humans like Tuttle who spend their lives fighting for species that aren't always so easy to love.]**
**For the record, I love bats. They're beautiful, and amazing, and whenever I swim at night, they skim and swoop and swim the surface of the water alongside me.
This little book filled to the brim with bat facts was written by one of the United States' foremost bat scientists, and was written expressly to combat people's (misplaced, unnecessary) fear of bats.
I dig how no-nonsense it is, and how earnest. Tuttle wants everyone to understand how beneficial bats are, how essential to so many ecosystems (from the water to the tallest canopies), and how easily and peacefully humans and bats can coexist.
There's even a section on how to construct your own bat house to attract and safely house bats on your property, + a section at the end called "A Beginner's Key to American Bats," both of which greatly appealed to the bat nerd in me.
It's a hopeful little book, even as Tuttle has seen first-hand how devastating humans can be to creatures they irrationally fear. I'll never forget Tuttle's description of men throwing sticks of dynamite into caves where bats were roosting, sleeping peacefully during winter months, not a harm or a danger to anyone.
That we as humans have tried to valiantly to decimate so many wild species that this earth needs to survive continues to be testament to our inability to be good stewards of the land we often occupy as if it were ours and no one else's.
That's the story with bats, just as it is with so many creatures on this planet: They're in trouble because of us. Because we won't leave them well enough alone.
"Even more important, we need bats whether we like them or not; their loss poses serious, potentially irreversible consequences to the environment that we all must share." -pg. 51
*The most recent data I could find on bats via the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) lists 24 bat species as "Critically Endangered" (facing imminent risk of extinction), 53 others as "Endangered," and 104 bat species as "Vulnerable" to extinction.
[Five stars for the hope we won't ruin everything before it's too late, and for humans like Tuttle who spend their lives fighting for species that aren't always so easy to love.]**
**For the record, I love bats. They're beautiful, and amazing, and whenever I swim at night, they skim and swoop and swim the surface of the water alongside me.
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