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    Bat and the Waiting Game
    Bat and the Waiting Game
    Bat and the Waiting Game
    Ebook115 pages1 hour

    Bat and the Waiting Game

    By Elana K. Arnold and Charles Santoso

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    About this ebook

    In the tradition of Clementine and Ramona Quimby, meet Bat. Author Elana K. Arnold returns with another irresistible story of friendship in this widely acclaimed series starring an unforgettable boy on the autism spectrum.

    For Bixby Alexander Tam (nicknamed Bat), life is pretty great. He’s the caretaker of the best baby skunk in the world—even Janie, his older sister, is warming up to Thor.

    When Janie gets a part in the school play and can’t watch Bat after school, it means some pretty big changes. Someone else has to take care of the skunk kit in the afternoons, Janie is having sleepovers with her new friends, and Bat wants everything to go back to normal.

    He just has to make it to the night of Janie’s performance. . . .

    Elana K. Arnold's Bat trilogy is a proven winner in the home and classroom—kids love these short illustrated young middle grade books. The trilogy is A Boy Called Bat, Bat and the Waiting Game, and Bat and the End of Everything.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateMar 27, 2018
    ISBN9780062445872
    Author

    Elana K. Arnold

    Elana K. Arnold is the award-winning author of many books for children and teens, including The House That Wasn’t There, the Printz Honor winner Damsel, the National Book Award finalist What Girls Are Made Of, and the Global Read Aloud selection A Boy Called Bat. She is a member of the faculty at Hamline University’s MFA in writing for children and young adults program and lives in Long Beach, California, with her husband, two children, and a menagerie of animals. You can find her online at elanakarnold.com.

    Read more from Elana K. Arnold

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    Reviews for Bat and the Waiting Game

    4/5

    36 ratings2 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Really nice book -- gentle story, no lecturing, interesting skunk information, and a supportive family. Very nice.
    • 5/5
      children's realistic fiction (3rd-5th grade level; main character is high-functioning on the autism spectrum)
      I can't speak to how realistic this might be for a person with autism, but I found Bat to be totally sweet, and lovably normal (if not neurotypical). Any kid who loves animals will be able to relate to him.

    Book preview

    Bat and the Waiting Game - Elana K. Arnold

    CHAPTER 1

    Skunk Kits

    Maybe, Bat thought, there was something better in the world than cradling a sleepy, just-fed baby skunk in your arms. But at this moment, it didn’t seem likely.

    Bat was sitting in his beanbag chair, having just put down the tiny, nearly empty bottle of formula. In Bat’s hand, licking his fine soft whiskers with a tiny pink tongue and then yawning widely to reveal two rows of new white teeth, was a six-week-old skunk kit named Thor.

    After licking his whiskers clean, Thor curled up into a ball in Bat’s hand, and Bat held the tiny creature close to his chest, carefully settling into his beanbag, watching as Thor fell into contented sleep.

    It had been one week since Bat’s mother had agreed that the family could continue caring for the skunk kit until he was old enough to be released into the wild, and Bat could still barely believe his good luck.

    With the soft, warm weight of Thor in his hands, Bat looked around his room. He sat across from his window, the bamboo shade rolled all the way up. The window was half open, and a pleasant breeze blew in. It was springtime, and the air was beginning to feel warm.

    Bat’s bed was neatly made just the way he liked it, with the blue sheet and red-and-blue-plaid quilt tucked in tight so that when he climbed in at night he would feel like he was slipping into a cocoon. A matching red-and-blue-plaid quilt peeked out from the trundle underneath Bat’s bed.

    There was the honey-brown dresser where Bat kept his clothes neatly sorted just how he liked them, and beside it was Bat’s bookshelf, where he kept all his important things, including his favorite possession, his animal encyclopedia. And there, right next to the animal encyclopedia, was something new.

    From where Bat sat, the new thing looked like an oddly shaped lump of clay, but Bat had spent enough time holding it and examining it from all angles to know that it was actually art.

    It was a sculpture of a skunk kit, molded out of gray clay, with eyes and a nose and a mouth carved into it and, on the bottom, the words From Israel carved in, too.

    When Israel had first handed it to Bat last Monday at school, it had taken Bat a moment to figure out what exactly he was holding.

    It’s a skunk kit! Israel said. I made it in my mom’s studio. She fired it in her kiln and everything. So this way, when you’re not at home with Thor, you can still have a skunk with you. You know, you can carry it around! Like, in your pocket or something.

    Bat had rubbed his thumb down the smooth shiny back of the clay lump. It didn’t look much like a skunk kit, but its pleasant weight felt good in his hand. And when he had flipped it over to find the words From Israel on the bottom, a warm good feeling spread through his chest and up his neck.

    A friend had given him a gift. And even if it didn’t look much like the real baby skunk now nestled in his hands, it definitely deserved a place on his bookshelf, along with his other important things.

    CHAPTER 2

    Dinner Conversation

    Setting the table for dinner was one of Bat’s jobs, but that evening, placing three plates, three cups, and three forks on three placemats, he felt very certain that his sister, Janie, should have this job instead.

    For one thing, she refused to let Bat carry Thor while he set the table.

    He’s tucked into his sling, Janie, Bat argued. Laurence, the veterinary technician who worked with Mom, had made the sling so that Bat could safely carry Thor around. "He’s not anywhere near your plate and fork and cup!"

    Janie just shook her head and crossed her arms. It’s not sanitary, she said. You’d be violating like three different health code regulations.

    Her logic wasn’t logical, but Bat screwed his mouth up tight and breathed in deeply through his nose. One of Mom’s conditions for raising the skunk kit was No family disharmony. Which meant that Bat wasn’t supposed to be stubborn about skunk stuff like setting the table with the skunk in his sling. So he turned around and headed back to his room, where he lifted the sling from where it hung around his neck and tucked it, sleeping Thor still inside, into the enclosure, a repurposed dog crate. At least Mom had finally agreed to let Thor sleep in Bat’s room. That was something.

    He didn’t mean to slam the dishes down on the table. Not really. And probably Janie wouldn’t even notice that he put her fork upside down instead of right side up.

    But she did notice, a few minutes later, when Bat filled Mom’s cup and his own cup with lemonade and Janie’s cup with plain water.

    Thank you, Bat, she said with a big smile. Sugar isn’t good for my voice before an important audition. And then she took a big gulp of the water like it was the best thing she had ever tasted.

    Are you nervous? Mom asked, spooning enchiladas onto each of the three plates. The hot melted cheese stretched into long strings as the enchiladas traveled from the serving dish to the plates.

    No, said Janie. Well, maybe a little.

    Bat waited for Mom to cut his enchilada into pieces. He liked the taste of enchiladas, but the texture of the cheese sometimes grossed him out a little. It was better if Mom cut it into little cubes for him.

    Bat, aren’t you old enough to cut your own food? Janie asked.

    Yes, Bat answered. But Mom does it better.

    Well, you’ll never get good at it unless you practice, Janie said. Bat didn’t like the tone of her voice—kind of like a know-it-all.

    Sometimes even practicing at something doesn’t mean you’ll ever get good at it, he said. Like you and singing.

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