Kindle
$9.99
Available instantly
Audible Logo Audiobook
$0.00
with membership trial
Hardcover
$16.19
Buy new:
$16.19
List Price: $17.99

The List Price is the suggested retail price of a new product as provided by a manufacturer, supplier, or seller. Except for books, Amazon will display a List Price if the product was purchased by customers on Amazon or offered by other retailers at or above the List Price in at least the past 90 days. List prices may not necessarily reflect the product's prevailing market price.
Learn more
Save: $1.80 (10%)
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns
FREE delivery Friday, May 3 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Or fastest delivery Thursday, May 2. Order within 17 hrs 50 mins
In Stock
$$16.19 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$16.19
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Ships from
Amazon.com
Ships from
Amazon.com
Sold by
Amazon.com
Sold by
Amazon.com
Returns
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Read full return policy
Returns
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Read full return policy
Payment
Secure transaction
Your transaction is secure
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
Payment
Secure transaction
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
Amazon book clubs early access
Loading your book clubs
There was a problem loading your book clubs. Please try again.
Not in a club? Learn more
Amazon book clubs early access

Join or create book clubs

Choose books together

Track your books
Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free.
Explore Amazon Book Clubs
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the author

Ernest Cline
Follow
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

Bridge to Bat City Hardcover – April 9, 2024

by Ernest Cline (Author)
3.6 3.6 out of 5 stars 23 ratings
#1 New Release in Children's Farm Life Books
See all formats and editions
{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"$16.19","priceAmount":16.19,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"16","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"19","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"9xL2gYtRodmjlvbDSgsCK8u7aSYJkhOO5ixflOvdAPZthTuQ1agZgHnGW1zjYn4PTKm4PcUV5VqDNYC26LePH7TGPMfU1dGAzUbhVjVHh7k6cvtHn%2FYYmw8JD2esYMBQD4wJHTbYVvs%2BVIu54fE%2FCw%3D%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

A National Bestseller!

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Ernest Cline comes a mostly true tall tale about an unexpected friendship between a young girl and a music-loving colony of bats.

Includes a beautiful map of Austin on the underside of the jacket!

After losing her mother, thirteen-year-old Opal moves in with her uncle Roscoe on the family farm. There, Opal bonds with Uncle Roscoe over music and befriends a group of orphaned, music-loving bats. But just as the farm is starting to feel like home, the bats’ cave is destroyed by a big mining company with its sights set on the farmland next.

If Opal and the bats can fit in anywhere, it’s the nearby city of Austin, home to their favorite music and a host of wonderfully eccentric characters. But with people afraid of the bats and determined to get rid of them, it’ll take a whole lot of courage to prove that this is where the bats—and Opal—belong. 

Previous page
  1. Reading age
    8 years and up
  2. Print length
    320 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Grade level
    3 and up
  5. Dimensions
    5.5 x 1.06 x 7.95 inches
  6. Publisher
    Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
  7. Publication date
    April 9, 2024
  8. ISBN-10
    0316460583
  9. ISBN-13
    978-0316460583
  10. See all details
Next page
The Amazon Book Review
The Amazon Book Review
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now

Frequently bought together

Bridge to Bat City
$16.19
Get it as soon as Friday, May 3
In Stock
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
+
Armada: A Novel
$21.81
Sold by QUARTZ TRADING and ships from Amazon Fulfillment.
Total price:
To see our price, add these items to your cart.
Details
Added to Cart
Some of these items ship sooner than the others.
Show details Hide details
Choose items to buy together.

From the Publisher

BRIDGE TO BAT CITY by Ernest Cline | A mostly true tall tale...

First children's book from the imagination of the author of Ready Player One! Ernest Cline

Photo of author, Ernest Cline

Blurb graphic that says "A fun middle-grade novel with a strong narrative voice."

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Ernest Cline is the bestselling author of Ready Player One, Ready Player Two, and Armada and co-screenwriter of the film adaptation of Ready Player One, directed by Steven Spielberg. This is his debut middle-grade novel. He lives in Austin, Texas.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Little, Brown Books for Young Readers (April 9, 2024)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0316460583
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0316460583
  • Reading age ‏ : ‎ 8 years and up
  • Grade level ‏ : ‎ 3 and up
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 13.3 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 1.06 x 7.95 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.6 3.6 out of 5 stars 23 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Ernest Cline

Ernest Cline

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

ERNEST CLINE is an internationally best-selling novelist, screenwriter, father, and full-time geek. He is the author of the novels Ready Player One and Armada and co-screenwriter of the film adaptation of Ready Player One, directed by Steven Spielberg. His books have been published in over fifty countries and have spent more than 100 weeks on The New York Times Best Sellers list. He lives in Austin, Texas, with his family, a time-traveling DeLorean, and a large collection of classic video games.

Customer reviews

3.6 out of 5 stars
3.6 out of 5
23 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

amvion
5.0 out of 5 stars The Good Bats
Reviewed in the United States on April 11, 2024
Verified Purchase
Only in my imagination, as I contemplate the latest news of "space aliens," I envision the bats as Plato's daemons reemerging from their seclusion, stirring significant trouble among profit-driven corporations and the United States government, both of whom wish these beings would simply disappear. It will require immense bravery for Opal—and indeed, everyone—to welcome these entities into the forthcoming era.

As Plotinus said, “But if man is able to follow the daemon which is above him, he comes to be himself above, living that daemon’s life, and giving the pre-eminence to that better part of himself to which he is being led [towards the Good]; and after that daemon he rises to another, until he reaches the heights [of transforming into a god].”
Helpful
 Report
James Elfers
2.0 out of 5 stars Audio Book is Fine Book not so fine
Reviewed in the United States on April 18, 2024
I refuse to give millionaire Ernest Cline money. Luckily, my local library had the audio book available as a free download. Felicia Day's folksy style is a bit grating at times, but on balance she does a fine job with the material. The problem is the material. Cline is crappy writer. His prose is rage producing for adults and baffling and banal for children. Cline writes down to his audience. Strike one. Cline drops in useless eighties trivia that kids will never care about. Strike two. The pervert has to put a hot mom in every opus, he does so here as well, in a KID'S book! he has his self-insert character behaving like a cartoon wolf when he encounters a Latina MILF waitress. Huge Strike Three!
In competent hands, this story could be pleasing and appreciated by both kids and parents. The problem is it's in Ernest Cline's hands! He comes across as your annoying uncle who insists on playing "pull my finger" at family gatherings. We've all seen and heard the joke, Unc! Without eighties references this would be a much slimmer and far more interesting book. However, Cline can't write about anything, but the nineteen-eighties or societies frozen in the nineteen-eighties. If you love books by an irrelevant manchild, this tome is right up your alley.
3 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Tom Turnip
1.0 out of 5 stars Big Old Beautiful Review
Reviewed in the United States on April 21, 2024
Verified Purchase
This book is bad, very bad. It’s promoted as Cline’s first book for kids, but if you think about it, (a) All his books are already childish, and (b) It’s still full of 80s nostalgia, so his real audience is still Gen X.

Here are some of the many reasons why this is a bad book.

- Cline evidently thinks his normal prose is way too lofty for a juvenile audience, so he dumbs it down considerably, grotesquely overstuffing his narrative with folksy expressions like “big old” this and that. He even acts as if words like “tailor” are fancy words that have to be explained. But Cline is the same author who made a name by glorifying juvenile chatroom insult-flinging. It needed no work to convince anyone he’s childish.

- Cline tries to build characters out of several of his bats, but it’s remarkably tedious, because the only differentiation he gives them is varying musical taste. Then again, this is Ernest Cline, so it’s easy to imagine him thinking that pop culture preferences are a personality.

- The love that the principle characters feel for the bats is odd as well. The words “furry little flying friends” come up several times, loading us down with tactile imagery, but the humans do not ever touch or hug or pet the bats in any way — not once. Can you picture yourself loving a dog without ever touching it? There’s a lot of complaining about the misconception that bats carry rabies, yet no character ever performs the one action that would show by example that they aren’t afraid of catching a bat disease.

- Then there’s Cline’s fawning over the Austin counterculture. It’s a boy crush sort of fawning that comes off like desperation to be accepted, and it’s frankly a bit icky. Here’s Uncle Roscoe telling 13-year-old Opal why Austin is a fabulous place: “The whole crazy town is filled with musicians, slackers, hippies, beatniks, outlaws, cosmic cowboys, and misfits of every stripe!” Super, right? Now ask yourself what you’d think if you had to choose a babysitter for your child out of that pool of applicants. Fortunately for Austin, most of the people who live there are boring, responsible adults, just like most anywhere else — but admitting that would not serve Cline.

- Did I already use the word “tedious?” Because, oh my god, Cline turns the repetitiveness in this book up to eleven. How many times must we read about bats attending a great concert? Only as many times as Ernest Cline wants to promote a musician he likes or pretends to like. And he will never get tired of doing that.

- Space aliens? Really? Yes. They appear once to enable a weird plot point, then are never seen again. It’s also implied that aliens deserve the credit for Buddy Holly’s musical talent.

- The utter laziness and lack of imagination. See “space aliens,” above. At one point, Cline decides to put his characters into front-row seats at a taping of Austin City Limits, then he feels a need to explain how they got there. How does he accomplish this? “Uncle Roscoe had called in a favor.” What? Why on earth would anybody owe this new-in-town deadbeat a favor? If Roscoe had a network of influential friends who owed him favors, wouldn’t the time to call them in have been before his farm got foreclosed and made him homeless? But we aren’t dealing with an author who thinks things through. This is merely a bad author who runs into an incredibly easy plot issue and doesn’t even bother to try.

- Cline bizarrely makes villains out of the Humane Society, describing them as “mean old bat catchers.”

- At some point in the reading, the senseless inanity became so overwhelming that I started hearing the narrative in the voice of Tommy Chong.

- The world-building and lore are simply awful. Why does he conscript real people like Anne Richards and Molly Ivins into his story, having them do things that would be utterly beneath them in real life? It’s more Clineian fawning, only now he’s moved from pop culture into the realm of politics and commentary. His pretend target audience (kids) won’t have a clue what he’s talking about and will ignore it, and half of his real target audience (nostalgic adults) will be turned off. I won’t take a position on politics; I’m only saying that if I wanted Party A to win an election, I would hire Cline to promote Party B.

Yes, this is a bad book. Are there saving graces? Only one, which is that Cline’s ineptitude is kind of funny and has inspired many entertaining videos and podcast episodes that expose it. But if you’re looking for a good story competently told, look elsewhere.
2 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
ZAC
5.0 out of 5 stars I really liked it
Reviewed in the United States on April 23, 2024
Verified Purchase
I really liked this book. Some of the musician references seemed sort of shoehorned into the plot, but it's a children's novel. A great set of messages are contained within this fast paced read. It's ok to be oneself, stick together, and be bold. Highly recommend
Helpful
 Report
C. O. Aptowicz
5.0 out of 5 stars A Celebration of Beautiful Weirdos
Reviewed in the United States on April 12, 2024
BRIDGE TO BAT CITY is an absolute gem of book that is a delight to read to kiddos of all ages. Cline nails a wonderful and warm Texas tone, as he unspools a tale that spotlights, validates, and celebrates weirdos and misunderstood outsiders of all stripes. And while, the story itself -- a self-proclaimed "tall tale" -- is charming and engaging, all of the real life facts, people, and places that run through the story adds a wonderful dimension to the reading experience. Young readers can stop and listen to the musicians and songs highlighted in the story, or watch videos of the magic of the bats filling up the Austin skyline, or see pictures of the actual artists, politicians, and scientists who really did make their mark in Austin and who shine in their own unique ways in the book. I highly recommend this book an incredible primer on how what makes us a unique as individuals can serve to make us strong as a community, as well as a just a rollicking good read!
One person found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
AV_Therearenobadbooks
5.0 out of 5 stars Out of the box fun story
Reviewed in the United States on April 21, 2024
This was fun. Although it starts with the loss of a parent, it starts a new life for Opal in a new location with her uncle. Southern Farm, the uncle, is a computer nerd and fun when he meets someone who doesn't find him weird. Making new friends: not just humans, they make friends with a colony of bats, saving them (she also can communicate with them). The bats also love country music, and there's a lot of information about Austin, musicians, singers, and music. The bats control the mosquito population, so it's a win-win when they find a new home. Love drawing and activism, changing people's opinions, and prejudice with information.
"The bats belong beneath the bridge!"
Fun.
The narrator or the audiobook has a great Southern accent.
Helpful
 Report