On a midwestern farm, a mother bat tries to convince her newborn son that he is indeed nocturnal, and must go to sleep during the daytime, as much as he protests. A book about a Halloween creature that is comforting rather than threatening, Baby Bat was drawn by award-winning artist Julia Noonan, with luscious results.

Baby Bat's Lullaby is the first children's book I wrote, and, like most things in my life, was a complete surprise to me! I didn't set out to write a children's picture book. My children asked me if I could free-rap. Why, I said, OF COURSE I can free-rap! I can make up a rhyme about anything you name. They pointed to their then two-year-old sister, who'd been running about for weeks in her bat Halloween costume. And I began to speak a rhyme about a small new prince of the dark, a dancer in the sky park - which I sent, along with a picture of Mimi in her costume, to my agent. A couple of days later, boom! I was a children's author. Most of the real credit goes to the genius of illustrator Julia Noonan, who drew a "Halloween" type creature so endearing and non-threatening a very little child can embrace him.

I also, personally, just love bats. Did you know they are not rodents, but a separate species of their own, that they are very tender and indeed devoted parents, and often sleep with their wings wrapped around their friends or their young, and that they can consume twice their own weight in mosquitoes on a given night? THAT ALONE is reason to love them, if you live in the Midwest, where the mosquito is the state bird.