Booklist named its Top 10 Sci-Tech Books for Youth: 2010 on December 1st, and The Bat Scientists was included, stating: “This exciting title in the Scientists in the Field series follows a team of dedicated bat scientists, dispelling popular myths and delivering plenty of surprising facts about the often maligned animals.”

The full *Starred* review by Booklist:
“With clear, informal prose and beautiful close-up color photos on every double-page spread, this exciting title in the Scientists in the Field series follows a team of dedicated bat specialists. Along the way, Carson dispels popular myths about the often maligned animals with solid information: bats are not blind, very few drink blood, and they are important pest controllers. The color photographs, including many full-page images, are spellbinding, from the image of a Texas cave filled with millions of adult bats to a close-up view of a single, walnut-sized baby. Many facts will be new to most readers—bats are the only mammals that fly; more than one-fifth of all the roughly 5,000 mammal species are bats—and young people will be easily drawn in by Carson’s lucid, fascinating explanations of concepts and her vivid descriptions of scientists at work. The conservation message is urgent: bats’ habitats are quickly disappearing because of overhunting, tourism, mining, and many other human-related causes. Whether describing the physics of echolocation or the present crisis of white-nose syndrome, Carson encourages readers to rethink stereotypes about creatures once scorned as flying vermin and shows how intricately their survival is tied to our own. Extensive back matter, including a glossary and a bibliography of books and Web sites, closes this standout resource.” — Hazel Rochman