Marguerite W. Davol

"Back when the world first began, there was no day, no night. The Mother of All Things stood where the four corners of the world meet and looked in every direction. ...
'The world is wide,' she said, 'but dull and gray. It needs light, bright light.'

Digging deep within the earth, the Mother of All Things brought out a lump of clay. She molded it into a perfect ball, then tossed it up, high into the sky. As it rose, the spinning ball began to glow, brighter, brighter, bringing light and warmth throughout the world. And day was born."

After day was created, the animals all complained that day was too bright, so the Mother of All Things wove a curtain of night. But then the night creatures complained it was too dark! The Mother of All Things told the night animals to solve the problem themselves.

In order to bring some light, the bats offer to pull back the curtain of night. With the owl's help, the bats try once, twice, three times. They reach the curtain of night, but can't pull it back, only poke holes in it. Mary Grandpre beautifully and elegantly illustrated my original creation myth, a myth about how the moon and stars were born.

I especially like to both read and listen to storytellers tell creation tales. Using snippets of ideas from many tales, I created my own creation myth in Batwings and the Curtain of Night. I chose bats for the story's heroes because in my opinion, bats are useful fascinating creatures, often unfairly maligned.

From Booklist: This richly imaginative, original creation story sounds as if it had been passed down for years, but because it is new, the ending surprises as much as it satisfies.