Stories for Growing
Cover of StellalunaAges 4 to 8
Different strengthsOpen-mindedness

Stellaluna

Janell Cannon

Ages 4 to 8
About this age guidance

Kirkus: 4–8

The age tag follows Kirkus review. Other sources may suggest different ages. This is audience guidance, not an independent reading level.

A father calls it a go-to gift and re-read with several discussion themes. He notes the owl scene may scare young children and that the bats meet Stellaluna with curiosity rather than bullying.

A fruit bat falls into a bird’s nest and tries to live like a bird. When she finds other bats and her own mother she learns bat ways, then introduces her bird friends to her night world. They find their differences but stay friends.

Good forMany kinds of people

Recommended by Crushing Krisis

Find at Bookshop.org Find on Amazon

Choose your preferred shop and check the edition there.

What children see in the story

Stellaluna learns what comes naturally to a bat. On the night flight, she can do something her bird friends cannot, and she helps them while they stay friends. The bats meet Stellaluna with curiosity, and her bird friends agree to join her night flight and try her way of doing things.

Why it’s on these shelves

Different strengths
Stellaluna learns that hanging by her feet and flying at night are what a bat does. When her bird friends try her night flight and nearly crash, she helps them, and they all decide they are still friends and family.
Open-mindedness
When Stellaluna meets other bats, they are curious about her instead of unkind. Later her bird friends Pip, Flitter and Flap agree to join her night flight and try her way, and the friendship holds.

Why pick it up?

Stellaluna is reunited with her mother, helps her bird friends on the night flight, and the friends agree differences do not end the friendship.

A note for parents

Academic criticism of the ending, recorded as asked: Shelley M. Park (philosophy), per Wikipedia, likes the message that a child’s non-conforming behavior may be just an expression of needs and abilities, but criticizes the book’s sorting of mothers into good or bad. The bird mother feeds and cares for Stellaluna yet is not included in the happy ending. The parent review also notes an assimilation theme (Stellaluna goes along with the bird family’s rules, then shifts back to being a bat), the owl scene for very young listeners, and that Mama Bird’s rules are largely for Stellaluna’s safety. No Publishers Weekly review exists for the ISBN tried. Age guidance is Kirkus only.

Where this recommendation comes from

Crushing Krisis

A father calls it a go-to gift and re-read with several discussion themes. He notes the owl scene may scare young children and that the bats meet Stellaluna with curiosity rather than bullying.

Read Krisis’s recommendation
Sources and review status

We have checked source descriptions and drafted the value mapping. We have not personally reviewed the full book. The value labels, situation assignments, and parent notes remain provisional.

Publisher or literacy resource · Original recommendation

Our explanation of the value fit is separate from the original reviewer’s judgment. Their inclusion here does not imply an endorsement of Stories for Growing.

Another good example

Browse more values