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Reviewed by:
  • Bat and Rat
  • Jeannette Hulick
Jennings, Patrick . Bat and Rat; illus. by Matthew Cordell. Abrams, 2012. 34p. ISBN 978-1-4197-0160-3 $16.95 R 5-7 yrs.

Best friends Bat and Rat are also musical partners: "Bat wrote the music and played the piano. Rat wrote the words and sang." When Rat suffers, one hot night, from writer's block over a song about her favorite things, they head to the ice cream parlor. Unfortunately for Bat, his tower of scoops falls into the gutter, leaving only one scoop on the cone. Luckily, it's a scoop of Mint Fly Chip, which Bat proclaims his "favorite favorite," a phrase that inspires Rat to finish her song (which includes lyrics such as "My favorite cheese is runny and smelly./ My favorite noodle is vermicelli./ My favorite headwear's a porkpie hat./ But my favorite favorite is Bat"). Although this premise is about as thin as Rat's beloved vermicelli noodle, Bat and Rat's midnight milieu of music composition and performance is an intriguing (and often amusing) one. That's especially true in the illustrations, lively pencil and watercolor art accented with humorous detail; particularly funny are Bat's dramatic reactions to the demise of his ice cream and the background appearances of the other nocturnal critters, such as the cockroach-looking hotel concierge, that also inhabit this world. This could easily put some levity into a study of nocturnal animals or be used as a kickoff to a discussion about favorite things; it would also be a novel selection for a nighttime library storytime/jam session.

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