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A review by sandra_foriers
Bat and the End of Everything by Elana K. Arnold
3.0
The A Boy Called Bat series follows young Bixie Alexander Tam, nicknamed Bat. His mother is a veterinary and comes home one day with an orphaned skunk kit. Bat gets to take care of the skunk, whom he calls Thor, until Thor is old enough to be put back into the wild.
In this third installment in the series, we see how Bat struggles with the idea of having to let his beloved skunk kit go.
I really liked this premise right from the start. Bat, who is somewhere on the autism spectrum, has to cope with a lot of changes in his life. The end of the school year is near and that means Bat has to say goodbye to his teacher mr Grayson and Babycakes, the class bunny. His father introduces him to his new girlfriend. What's worse, Bat's best friend Israel is leaving for the summer, which means he might not be back to support Bat when he needs to let Thor go.
What I love most about this series is how the author succeeds in creating an incredibly diverse cast of characters without forcing this diversity on her readers. Aside from Bat's autism, the author also hints at the fact that Bat has a non-caucasian ethnicity. Bat's parents are divorced and his friend group, especially his best friend Israel are heavily implied to be non-white. I love how this whole mix of colourful people blends so nicely without ever feeling like Elana K. Arnold was just checking off some representation boxes.
Every situation is also described so incredibly realistically. I really felt for poor little Bat who was struggling to cope with all these changes.
However, this is undercut by the ending. After three books of building up tension to the emotional goodbye between Bat and Thor, the author completely undercuts this by letting Bat keep Thor.
I find this problematic on so many levels. First of, as I mentioned before, this ending completely undercuts the emotional build-up the author had so carefully constructed throughout the books. Now it just feels a bit lazy.
Secondly, I also believe that this sends out a very problematic message. Skunks are wild animals, and therefore belong in the wild. By letting Bat keep Thor, the author basically tells us it's okay to keep wild animals as pets, just as long as we take good care of them. THIS IS NOT OK! As an adult, I know this, but the target audience for this book is younger middle graders. We should be really careful with sending out this type of message.
But what I'm most disappointed about, is the fact that we missed out on an incredibly interesting and valuable lesson on letting go because the author was afraid to kill her darlings. Or rather, to set them free in the wild again.
In this third installment in the series, we see how Bat struggles with the idea of having to let his beloved skunk kit go.
I really liked this premise right from the start. Bat, who is somewhere on the autism spectrum, has to cope with a lot of changes in his life. The end of the school year is near and that means Bat has to say goodbye to his teacher mr Grayson and Babycakes, the class bunny. His father introduces him to his new girlfriend. What's worse, Bat's best friend Israel is leaving for the summer, which means he might not be back to support Bat when he needs to let Thor go.
What I love most about this series is how the author succeeds in creating an incredibly diverse cast of characters without forcing this diversity on her readers. Aside from Bat's autism, the author also hints at the fact that Bat has a non-caucasian ethnicity. Bat's parents are divorced and his friend group, especially his best friend Israel are heavily implied to be non-white. I love how this whole mix of colourful people blends so nicely without ever feeling like Elana K. Arnold was just checking off some representation boxes.
Every situation is also described so incredibly realistically. I really felt for poor little Bat who was struggling to cope with all these changes.
However, this is undercut by the ending. After three books of building up tension to the emotional goodbye between Bat and Thor, the author completely undercuts this by letting Bat keep Thor.
I find this problematic on so many levels. First of, as I mentioned before, this ending completely undercuts the emotional build-up the author had so carefully constructed throughout the books. Now it just feels a bit lazy.
Secondly, I also believe that this sends out a very problematic message. Skunks are wild animals, and therefore belong in the wild. By letting Bat keep Thor, the author basically tells us it's okay to keep wild animals as pets, just as long as we take good care of them. THIS IS NOT OK! As an adult, I know this, but the target audience for this book is younger middle graders. We should be really careful with sending out this type of message.
But what I'm most disappointed about, is the fact that we missed out on an incredibly interesting and valuable lesson on letting go because the author was afraid to kill her darlings. Or rather, to set them free in the wild again.