Friday Reconnect - Week One!

By Chloe Grant, Read to Them Staff

Happy Friday! Welcome to the first Friday Reconnect, and congratulations on finishing your first week of A Boy Called Bat. Each Friday this post will help us wrap up the week, share writing prompts for the weekend, and reflect on what we’ve read.

This week we kicked off our reading of A Boy Called Bat by Elana K. Arnold. After getting to know our author and main character a little better on the blog, we were able to dive into our reading. In addition to the excitement of meeting the Tam household’s new friend, we got to experience what the daily life of Bat is like. Between vanilla yogurt and classroom breaks with Babycakes, each chapter we’re learning more and more about Bat’s world. By this point in the story we know that Bat would do anything to spend more time with the baby kit his mom has brought home— even if it means missing a visit with his dad. However, Bat’s unable to outsmart his mom by faking a sore throat, and must accept that he’ll spend the next few days away from his new friend.

As Bat heads into a weekend at his dad’s house, we hope that you are enjoying some time with your family as well. Although we’ve left off with Bat being down in the dumps about having mushy food for dinner, we think Mr. Tam’s new recipe is delicious. However, we’ll let you be the judge of that! We were lucky enough to get our hands on Mr. Tam’s 'Every Other Friday' 3 Bean Chili recipe!

If you and your family decide to try it out, we’d love to hear your thoughts! Or, if chili’s not your thing, here are some other writing prompts for your weekend:

• Now that we’re one week in, what do you think so far?

• What was your favorite Bat activity that you did this week?

• Bat had a moment of anger in chapter 3, No Vanilla Yogurt. What do you do to calm yourself down in moments of anger? Check out our Facebook Live on Monday at 3:00PM EST to see what one of our team members does to help keep himself calm.

• As we’ve learned in our reading for this week, Bat loves animals. Tell us about something or someone you love.

• In chapter 11 Bat, Mr. Tam, and Janie go to Cocoa, Bat’s favorite coffee shop. Tell us about your favorite place and what makes it so special.

See you next week!