The Bat who loves the Sun

  The Bat who loves the Sun is an adorable winter-time story about friendship, community and self-expression.

  This story follows Brock, a bat who wants to fly during the day and sleep at night. We see him struggle with the curiosity about the daytime and the sunlight, and his fear of alienating himself from the other bats. After the other bats refuse to indulge his ideas, he seeks out the help of the little dragon Kei, who agrees to go outside with him in the daylight. The two friends keep this a secret from the other bats until they get caught out, and Brock comes clean to his family and friends.

When the other bats realise they can't stop Brock doing this, they decide to just... let him. But they don't support him or show any interest, which disheartens Brock and makes him feel confused; he just got the thing he wanted, he's free to go flying all day without anyone giving him in trouble for it... so why does he feel sad?

  What follows is a lesson in the difference between acceptance and support, and the importance of supporting your loved ones through difficult or scary times, even if we're not entirely sure how to do that. A lot of the time, though, the best way to start is by asking questions and learning from them - as Brock and the other bats soon show, the best way to understand something new is to take a genuine interest in it and break down barriers.

  All in, it's the perfect story for children and adults alike - and being set in winter makes it a great new story to read during the holidays.

... Okay, that's the official description, so what else is there to know about this book? Well...

  This book talks about the importance of self-expression. Brock enjoys spending his days in the sun - but this means he has to wear sunblock, which the other bats have never heard of before, and which they're concerned might hurt or damage Brock. But he wears it after getting scared when his nose got sun-burn on it.

  Another thing which comes from his extended time in the sun is his sunmarks - patterns in his fur where the colour is bleached, and other areas which remain their original colour. This comes from his time spent sunbathing, and does him no harm. He even has fun admiring the new designs and takes pride in how he looks. But when the other bats see them for the first time, they get scared and confused, so lash out and insult Brock's sunmarks, and by extension, Brock himself. 

  After this, and Brock's subsequent emotional turmoil, the bats learn how hurtful they've been, and make an effort to be kinder to Brock and to learn about his sun-block and sunmarks.

  Unsurprisingly, all of this can be related back to how you choose to present yourself. Dressing differently, or choosing to look different from everyone around you, is a scary thing to do. Especially when you know you'll probably be judged for it. But an even scarier thing to do is choose to look different from how everyone is used to seeing you - especially when this new presentation is more authentically "you". 

  The Bat who loves the Sun explores what it looks like to look like yourself, even when that means not looking the way others expect you to look. It's a great book for children and adults alike, as it can spark conversations about how you look versus how you want to be seen, self-expression, fears over being included versus being tolerated, and the importance of support.

The Series: 'Essentia Forest' is a series of childrens' books which address the difficulties of identifying yourself, and how scary it can be to realise you're different from everyone around you. But it also points out that most of the time, everyone else also feels like they don't fit in, like the don't belong, like they're too weird or like they're just not the same as everyone else. It's one of the things a lot of us have in common, feeling like we're different. Whether this is because of our hobbies and interests, or how we look, or how we talk, or what our family looks like, or who we enjoy being friends with, or who we find our crowd with... realising we're not the same as everyone else can be terrifying. 

'Essentia' is a Latin word, derived from the Greek 'ousia', which means 'essence'. I chose this because all of the things which make us different are the things which make us us. They're as much a part of us as the things which we have in common with everyone else. They're essential parts of us, because without them, we wouldn't be ourselves. 

The things that make us different are usually the very essense of what makes each of us ourselves.

It seemed a good name for a series set in a forest full of characters who are all just right as they are, because they're all different.

...

Every book in the Essentia Forest series has two editions: 

The first editions are a few thousand words long, and have 0 illustrations. They're all collected under the "Big, Brave Reader Edition" group, because they're aimed at children who are big and brave enough to tackle reading a book all by themselves, without any pictures to help them along. 

The second editions have much lower word counts, and come with 20+ hand-drawn illustrations. These ones all belong to the "Read Along With Me!" group, because they're aimed at tots and young children who aren't quite ready to tackle a big-kid book just yet. However, nothing about the plotline has been changed - these younger versions tell the exact same stories, with the exact same casts of beloved characters for children of all ages to enjoy.