When the evening comes, it is time to be the Bat Boy!
Author: Anssi Hurme
Illustrator: Maija Hurme
Swedish | Finnish original: Fladdermuspojken | Lepakkopoika
Publisher: Schildts & Söderströms, 2014
Genre: illustrated children’s fiction
Number of pages: 28 pp.
Reading material: Swedish original, Finnish original, English translation
Ilmari looks like an ordinary six-year-old boy. He goes to preschool, brushes his teeth every morning and every night.
But when mother leaves for work in the evening and father has no time to play, Ilmari hides behind the curtains and transforms into the Bat Boy.
Bat Boy can survive without food or sleep and he can do whatever he wants. You can never know when Bat Boy appears from the shadows. And you can never know when Bat Boy meets another one of his kind.
“Bat Boy uses the hero myths from popular culture, even if it on the surface is a story about the daily lives in a family. The simplified, yet expressive illustrations draw from graphic novels, and the scenes are zoomed in and out based on the feelings of the main character.”
– Helsingin Sanomat newspaper’s Best books of 2014
“Bat Boy is a joyful surprise. It is a compact picture book, in which the small amount of text and the illustrations are in balance. There is nothing too much nor too little.”
– Lastenkirjahylly literature blog
Anssi Hurme’s story of the fearless Bat Boy is illustrated by Maija Hurme. The book was nominated for Arvid Lydecken Award. Anssi and Maija Hurme have published together also Under the Covers (2012) and the Finlandia Junior Prize nominated Shadowed (2018).
Also available:
Secret Gardeners (2021)
Shadowed (2018)
Under the Covers (2012)
About the authors:
Maija Hurme
Anssi Hurme