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The Vampire State Building
Originally published as The Bat Family.
What if your dad were president of the United States, and you lived in the White House? Some of the most famous people in the world would visit your house, and you'd have a new room to explore every day of the month. And you might meet some residents of the White House that nobody's heard of, like the family of bats living in the basement, an anteater named Agatha who lives in the garden shed, and a blue bear. Each season with these new friends would bring new adventures. Perhaps you'd solve a mystery with the help of a Secret Service agent. Or you could take a trip to the very tall -- and twice as spooky -- Vampire State Building...and hope you live to tell about it!
What if your dad were president of the United States, and you lived in the White House? Some of the most famous people in the world would visit your house, and you'd have a new room to explore every day of the month. And you might meet some residents of the White House that nobody's heard of, like the family of bats living in the basement, an anteater named Agatha who lives in the garden shed, and a blue bear. Each season with these new friends would bring new adventures. Perhaps you'd solve a mystery with the help of a Secret Service agent. Or you could take a trip to the very tall -- and twice as spooky -- Vampire State Building...and hope you live to tell about it!
95 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1984
1 person is currently reading
20 people want to read
About the author
Byron Preiss
108 books39 followersByron Preiss was the president of Byron Preiss Visual Publications and Ibooks, and was recognized as a pioneer in digital publishing. He was among the first publishers to release CD-ROM's and electronic books.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., Preiss graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1972 and earned a master's degree in communications from Stanford University. He produced The Words of Gandhi, an audio book that won a Grammy Award in 1985. He was also the co-author of Dragonworld, a novel he co-wrote with J. Michael Reaves that was published by Bantam Books in 1979.
A proponent of illustrated books, as well as comics and graphic novels, Preiss also published works by celebrity authors including Jane Goodall, Billy Crystal, Jerry Seinfeld, LeAnn Rimes and Jay Leno.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., Preiss graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1972 and earned a master's degree in communications from Stanford University. He produced The Words of Gandhi, an audio book that won a Grammy Award in 1985. He was also the co-author of Dragonworld, a novel he co-wrote with J. Michael Reaves that was published by Bantam Books in 1979.
A proponent of illustrated books, as well as comics and graphic novels, Preiss also published works by celebrity authors including Jane Goodall, Billy Crystal, Jerry Seinfeld, LeAnn Rimes and Jay Leno.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 6, 2017
So for some reason, this book was on a display shelf on my way home from work one night. Because I had just finished one book, I figured why not try a smaller book and see how that pans out. The Vampire State Building seemed like a simple yet interesting enough title, so I figured why not give it a try? It would be a quick read and quick to review.
Now, considering I'm a young adult without a child, I have to look at this as "Okay, would this be something I would have enjoyed as a child?" "Would it be something I would want to read to a child?" After I read the book and tried thinking about it in that light, my answer to both of these questions would honestly yet sadly have to be no.
To be fair, if I'm going to get a book called The Vampire State Building, I'd much rather have the whole book be about the adventure to that titular building. Instead, although there is indeed the adventure to The Vampire State Building, it's not until over halfway through the book because there are 3 more mini-stories that preceded it. These includes dealing with a computer our narrator can't understand, the narrator learning how to play golf, and throwing a birthday party for a bear that didn't know when his birthday even was. Oh, and get this: this child lives in the White House! Yep! His father is the President of the United States, which makes the whole Vampire State Building title feel even more out of place because most of the book takes place in Washington, and I don't think I need to explain that Washington D.C. and New York City aren't even in the same state.
Another complaint I had is that while I understand this is a child's book, I would have at least liked to have known what our narrator's name was so I could know who it is I am supposed to be following here. For all I know, this child's name could have been John Smith. It's even more frustrating once I saw that this child's friends all had names, such as Poppa Bat, Bat, Agatha, etc. I really wish this child would have been given a name too since he's our main character.
But, this is a children's book, so I can't be too hard on it. Knowing that a lot of the stuff portrayed in this book would never fly in the real world such as a Vampire State Building, an alternate universe where this is allowed can be excused. Also, it was an easy-to-follow book and it does seem like a good start to begin with if you're graduating from picture children's books to a novella, and I guess it would be fine if you're learning how to read, but there are other books I feel like it was done better.
The actual adventure to New York in itself was actually a fun little reward, but again, I feel like that should have been the whole book instead of part of it after looking at the title of this book. That might be just me though, but yeah, that was my main complaint. I do really like the idea of because it helps add suspense to the plot of the whole adventure. And then the giant bat we see reminds me a bit of that 90's show Gargoyles, which I thought was a dark, fun little show. If that were the whole book, I would have liked the book as a whole more, but it is what it is.
It still wasn't really that bad of a book, but I don't think I would recommend this either and just find something else if I wanted to read a book to children.
Now, considering I'm a young adult without a child, I have to look at this as "Okay, would this be something I would have enjoyed as a child?" "Would it be something I would want to read to a child?" After I read the book and tried thinking about it in that light, my answer to both of these questions would honestly yet sadly have to be no.
To be fair, if I'm going to get a book called The Vampire State Building, I'd much rather have the whole book be about the adventure to that titular building. Instead, although there is indeed the adventure to The Vampire State Building, it's not until over halfway through the book because there are 3 more mini-stories that preceded it. These includes dealing with a computer our narrator can't understand, the narrator learning how to play golf, and throwing a birthday party for a bear that didn't know when his birthday even was. Oh, and get this: this child lives in the White House! Yep! His father is the President of the United States, which makes the whole Vampire State Building title feel even more out of place because most of the book takes place in Washington, and I don't think I need to explain that Washington D.C. and New York City aren't even in the same state.
Another complaint I had is that while I understand this is a child's book, I would have at least liked to have known what our narrator's name was so I could know who it is I am supposed to be following here. For all I know, this child's name could have been John Smith. It's even more frustrating once I saw that this child's friends all had names, such as Poppa Bat, Bat, Agatha, etc. I really wish this child would have been given a name too since he's our main character.
But, this is a children's book, so I can't be too hard on it. Knowing that a lot of the stuff portrayed in this book would never fly in the real world such as a Vampire State Building, an alternate universe where this is allowed can be excused. Also, it was an easy-to-follow book and it does seem like a good start to begin with if you're graduating from picture children's books to a novella, and I guess it would be fine if you're learning how to read, but there are other books I feel like it was done better.
The actual adventure to New York in itself was actually a fun little reward, but again, I feel like that should have been the whole book instead of part of it after looking at the title of this book. That might be just me though, but yeah, that was my main complaint. I do really like the idea of because it helps add suspense to the plot of the whole adventure. And then the giant bat we see reminds me a bit of that 90's show Gargoyles, which I thought was a dark, fun little show. If that were the whole book, I would have liked the book as a whole more, but it is what it is.
It still wasn't really that bad of a book, but I don't think I would recommend this either and just find something else if I wanted to read a book to children.
October 23, 2022
I didn’t much care about the first three stories but the titular tale was really fun. Every floor you go up in the Vampire State Building the vampire bats double in size.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews