My wife and I noticed that there weren’t many good stories for early readers. Her problem: too many words the child did not know and couldn’t work out on her own. My problem: the characters were uninteresting.

We both agreed that early readers were unlikely to pick up a book and just start reading.

From this dissatisfaction, the character of Bad Bat evolved. Children seem to like him for two reasons:

1. his name is easy to say; creating a welcome oasis within the less familiar words, and

2. He is not an upstanding citizen.

Many of the original Bad Bat stories, especially the earliest and easiest, were snippets and as many others were lost. I plan to go back and try to recreate the earliest ones, so please check back every now and then to see if any new stories have been added.

If you like the Bad Bat stories, see ‘how you can help’ below.

If you want to teach your children more about the real habits of bats (which, unlike Bad Bat, are very nice creatures) you can start at

-- Thanks to Chris Harlow of Cornwall, UK, for pointing out this site. He would also like everyone to know that “Bats have received bad press over the years and it is quite undeserved. They are fascinating and intelligent creatures who do no harm to anybody.”

The Rules:

Parents: Feel free to print out the stories for your personal use. I have included Microsoft Word versions, so you can download them and change the children’s names to match your own.

Teachers: You are more than welcome to print out enough for each child in the class. For legal reasons, I have to set a maximum, so that number is 12. But if you need more than 12 copies, just e-mail and I will most likely allow it.

Publishers:Bad Bat is happy to make appearances in your textbooks for a moderate or a waived fee. Please contact me.

Some FAQs:

Q. Why don’t you make the Bad Bat stories end happily? In one of them, Bad Bat spoils the fun and by the time things are fixed, it’s bedtime.
A. How unlike real life, where bedtime never interferes with fun!

Q. Where are the pictures?
A. I find that pictures get in the way when practicing reading. The children guess at the words based on what the pictures show. When working with my own children, I keep finding myself saying, “Look at the words, not the pictures.” So I figured I could solve this problem quite easily with my own stories.

Q. I love Bad Bat! How can I help?
A. My favorite question. There are four ways you can help:

1. Let me know if your children have particular trouble with reading or understanding any portions of these stories. My ‘focus group’ is quite small so the more feedback the merrier.
2. As mentioned, I have lots of parts and pieces of Bad Bat stories I can finish. If you are looking for certain sounds, just let me know and I’ll work on that one first.
3. If you would like to help Bad Bat’s nicer cousins... i.e. donate to bat protection or rescue efforts, you can find a link here:

https://batworld.org/ways-to-donate/ < Just one click could save a bat’s life!