Stellaluna

Stellaluna is the story of a fruit bat, who gets separated from her mother one night. She lands in a birds' nest, where she is adopted family and fed grasshoppers by Mama Bird.

Stellaluna learned to be like the birds. She stayed awake all day and slept all night. She ate bugs even though they tasted awful. Her bat ways were quickly disappearing. Except for one thing: Stellaluna still liked to sleep hanging by her feet.

When Stellaluna tries to teach the other baby birds to hang upside down, Mama Bird gets mad, so Stellaluna promises to act like a good bird. Stellaluna tries to learn to fly like the birds, but she is different, and she feels embarrassed by her clumsiness.

One night, Stellaluna gets lost from the birds and meets another bat. She learns that she is a bat, not a bird, and finds her mother. Her mother helps her learn to fly at night and eat fruit. She returns to the birds and brings them home with her to see how bats live. In the end, they recognize their differences. One of the birds asks, "How can we be so different and feel so much alike?" Stellaluna concludes, "But we're friends. And that's a fact."

This is a great book for teaching children about tolerance. Stellaluna and the birds serve as role models about how friendships can occur between different sorts of people, and that it is ok to have differences. I do not like Mama Bird's initial attitude towards Stellaluna's differences, but it serves as good reference for discussion with children about trying to change other people.