Mentioned in a blog post at https://booksbeyondbinaries.blog/2020/07/20/chapter-books-whats-good/ (July 20th release)

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This is a lovely story about new beginnings and new friends!

Daniel and his family have just moved from Toronto to a new house, away from his old life and his friends. The neighbors have two children about his age, but Daniel is not keen on meeting them. He misses his old life and prefers to spend time in his room. The very first night in the new house, Daniel comes to think that the house is haunted. There is a paddle on which he slips and there is also a voice coming from somewhere in the ceiling!

It turns out that there is no ghost, in the house, just a small fruit bat that is living in Daniel’s room in the attic. The bat was taking a nap on a papaya one day on its beautiful tropic island. When he woke up, he found himself in that old house. Now he is lonely and he wants to go back home to Papaya Premium!

This funny children’s book is enjoyable to read! The story about the boy and the bat is clever enough to keep the young reader going! It talks about a big change in a child’s life and how this can affect the poor thing. At the same time it shows ways that the child can be destructed and try to make new friendships.

For example, the bat was a really good reason for Daniel to seek for help in his mission to ship Megabat back home. This is how he meets with the kids next door, even though he didn’t actually want to meet anyone new! However, the purpose was bigger than his hesitation and it help him find a new good friend, Talia! ( )

DNF after the first quarter or so.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. My thoughts and opinions are my own. Also, the quote I used may have changed or been altered in some way, but I am quoting from what I received.

I wasn't able to finish reading this book to my son, and I wasn't motivated to read it on my own without him. We stumbled through the first part of the story, and I think that's because the bat's words and phrases came across the wrong way. I'm not sure if he spoke another language, or if he somehow misheard how things were pronounced, or if he just had issues with saying certain things. The why wasn't clarified within the story (at least not what we read). Instead of being cute and endearing, it was obnoxious and detracted from the book.

"Daniel was no bat expert, but something about the shape of the face made him guess it was a boy bat." That statement and how it was presented really rubbed me the wrong way.

In the end, there were more than a few things about Megabat that bothered me, and my son also didn't seem particularly invested in what was going on. He did stop me once to ask what a "smooshfruit" was.


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What a cute story about a young boy moving and feeling alone. When Megabat comes into his life, things start to change. Good read for ages 7 to 10. Also, loved the fun bat facts at the end of the book.

I requested Megabat through interlibrary loan because I'd won a review copy of the sequel, Megabat and Fancy Cat, from the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program. The sequel was so funny and charming that I had to read the first book.

The Misumi family has moved from Toronto to another part of Canada a three-hour drive away. Our young hero, Daniel J. Misumi, hates their new house. Judging from the illustration that faces page one, I'd have enjoyed it when I was a child. It doesn't seem to have any air conditioning. Well, I spent years enduring Maryland's hot, humid summers back before home air conditioners were readily available, so I wouldn't have missed it.

Daniel's bedroom is in the attic, even though he's an only child. He's sulking about being uprooted and is determined not to try to like anything in his new home. One thing he can't be blamed for not liking is a puddle on his bedroom floor. I instinctively recoiled until I realized that no one was complaining about a stink, so the puddle probably wasn't what I thought. (The puddles do get explained later.)

As Daniel is drifting off to sleep he hears a small, quivering voice. It's not saying anything scary, but the fact that it's there is scary enough. Daniel is braver than I am. I wouldn't have waited to hear it a second time before I'd have been screaming and running out of my room. (Naturally, his parents don't believe his room is haunted.)

I laughed aloud at how eager Daniel was to avoid going back to his room, especially his last-ditch chore offer. His reaction when he found out what his 'ghost' was made me laugh harder. The tiny fruit bat doesn't speak English well. For example, he calls jelly 'smoosh fruit'. He also doesn't understand about personal names. He thinks 'Daniel' is what Daniel is, so he calls the boy 'a Daniel'. He thinks his home is Papaya Premium.

Daniel doesn't know where that is, nor do his parents, so he goes to the local library to look it up (no internet yet at home). He takes the bat with him. The bat shares his pocket with a Darth Vader bookmark, to which the Bat has an interesting reaction.

Daniel figures out the bat came from Borneo. The bat tells him how he was napping at home and wound up in the Misumi house, although it was owned by an old woman whose name was probably Mrs. Jenkins at the time. How can the boy get that sad little bat home?

Daniel introduces the bat to 'Star Wars: a New Hope' while he reads in the books on bats that he checked out. From them he finds out that fruit bats are sometimes known as 'megabats'. Our title character has his name!

Mrs. Misumi wants Daniel to return a dish to Patricia, the mother next door. It's an obvious ploy to get Daniel to meet Patricia's daughter and son and he knows it. Patricia introduces him to Talia and her younger brother, Jamie. Talia is nice, but Jamie's going to have to have a complete personality change if he's not going to have his mug shot appearing in the news media when he's grown. No wonder the author came up with excuses to keep him out of the sequel -- Jamie is definitely not Christmas mood material.

Talia is all helpfulness when it comes to helping Daniel return Megabat. Too bad reality is ready to give them a hard, cold smack when they try to mail him.
Megabat is crushed, but 'The Empire Strikes Back' and 'Return of the Jedi' help him cope.

During the rest of the book Megabat makes friends with one of the local pigeons, Birdgirl, and runs afoul of Jamie. Daniel's further attempts to help Megabat get home fail. Then Jamie becomes a a threat again. Daniel whispers to Birdgirl...

Megabat is a great character. The drawing of him sleeping in Daniel's sock that's on the title page is as cute as a kitten or puppy. Daniel may be the main human, but he's a second banana to Megabat as soon as our little accidental émigré makes himself visible. According to the back cover, this is a Junior Library Guild selection, and I think they made a good choice. I enjoyed the information about fruit bats at the end of the book. (By the way, if you have trouble remembering the four directions, there's a phrase to help with that in chapter 12.)

This is a funny book, but I think the sequel is even better! ( )