Vision and Imagination Are Hit? Lee Washington
novel, a young fruit-bat is fascinated by children
playing in a backyard. While upside down, the
creature barely makes out images of swinging sticks and rolling balls in a host of colors of
is children enjoying a croquet set straight from the "fairest of three-dollar garage sales.* The bat, of course, has
very poor eyesight, but it is the bat's imagination-not just its vision and position-that propel the story. The
imagines happy, laughter-filled backyard scenes. Descriptions presented by this
bat
Tim Ranch's latest novel, Sleeping Upside-Down.
2The human characters in the novel are just as captivatinq. The main human character, Kate Waterbee, is :
typical thirteen-year-old. She is secretly angry with her parents because they have
no decent excuse for
forbidding her from getting a pet. Kate believes that *allergies would have at least evoked some sympathy, But
her parents' noses and eyes could handle dog or a kitty. It is their worried minds that fear
an animal whining
at them
all the time." While pleased with their mellow daughter, Kate's parents fear adopting needy,
demanding pet could alter that attribute.
*Curiously, the backyard bat becomes a perfect pet. Kate makes a bat box for it on the side of the tree. Her
"sometimes-pet" as she calls it, starts to think highly of Kate and her family. The chapters from the bat's point of view are especially interesting. The
bat imagines Kate's days down to the smallest detail.
*Ranch's usual streak of silliness shown in his earlier novels takes a back seat in Sleeping Upside-Down. While the situations in the novel are in very
funny, the characters seem ordinary and sincere in their reactions. During rainstorms, for instance, the shift key on Kate's keyboard becomes stuck.
ME TOMORROW? I AM NOT YELLING." Ranch adds a hint of his strange humor to many of Kate's everyday actions.
5Accepting a backyard bat as character may be abnormal for readers at first, but by the end of the novel, the stories of Kate and the bat blend
together very well. The addition of the bat avoids this work from being labelled as merely charmingly predictable teen fiction. The story does not
develop into a children's tale of speaking animals. It instead shows two points of view on Kate's life. Though the idea of chapters switching
viewpoints seems dizzying, it is no more severe than the sway of a backyard swing.
°Ranch's novel presents characterization through Kate's interactions with her parents and with the bat. The bat wants to belong to Kate's family just
as she is trying to break from the comforts of home and make new friends. Like the bat in the backyard tree, Ranch maintains enough distance from
his characters to avoid interfering with too many details. Ranch's writing style suggests his own great love of people-watching. Without being too
sweet or dramatic, Sleeping Upside-Down is a wonderful story worth exploring.
Why does the author believe that Ranch's usual streak of silliness takes a back seat in Sleeping Upside-Down?
A)
The characters seem sincere in their reactions.
B)
The talking bat adds to the attraction of the story.
The characters of the talking bat and Kate blend well
D)
Kate is a serious girl who secretly resents her parents.
1In Tim Ranch's
and running humans. I
bat only add to the appeal of
Her initial attempts to e-mail cute boy in her class seem even more uncomfortable with the added emphasis: "WOULD YOU GET ICE CREAM WITH
C)
es 1)