Fuse 8 n’ Kate: Stellaluna by Janell Cannon

Seems to me that bats are shouldering a great deal of the blame for our current COVID-19 crisis. Considering the fact that their P.R. wasn’t all that great to begin with (Batman aside), I decided we would combat this problem with the most famous bat-related picture book in America. It doesn’t hurt matters any that this entire episode is pretty much just an excuse for me to post cute videos of baby fruit bats (see below).

Listen to the whole show here on Soundcloud or download it through iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, PlayerFM, or your preferred method of podcast selection.

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Show Notes:

Kate got a little confused by this image. She says it looked like there was a third wing, hold that baby to its mother’s chest.

“Meep!”

Kate noticed this little detail that I missed. Cannon worked in this bracelet into the weave of the nest. Nicely done.

I love that the baby birds have different reactions to this new form of hanging out. The first two are pretty chill but #3, with his Doc from Back to the Future, is thinking, “NOPE!!”

I mentioned that my falcons are currently nesting on my own library building right now. Here they are on the live cam. Love those guys.

This is Kate’s favorite image of the Mama in the book. It looks like an homage to Olivier Dunrea to me.

This is just me pandering to you, at this point. Here’s the video of the juvenile fruit bat being petted:

And here is a video of a baby fruit bat eating a banana:

Kate is convinced that in this shot the birds are furious in the art. I remain unconvinced.

Extra points for the 1993 picture book nonfiction backmatter on display here. Cannon was clearly ahead of her time.

Came in at #71 on the Top 100 Picture Books Poll.

Here is the adorable Stellaluna toy that they sold alongside the book when it first came out:

Hooray! Here is the announcement about my book coming out with David Small! It’s nice to finally be able to talk about it. It had been brewing for quite a while.

Filed under: Fuse 8 n' Kate