Thai language. The connection she felt to the Thai people despite their differences in language and culture caused her to ask herself, "How can we be so different, yet feel so much the same?" This question lead her to consider writing a story where the theme was "overlooking differences in order to find common ground." When she returned to California, she began to create a children's book with this theme that featured bats; creating this book took several years. She credits the work of bat scientist and photographer Merlin Tuttle as part of her inspiration for Stellaluna. Specifically, she referred to Tuttle's 1986 National Geographic article, "Gentle Flyers of the African Night", which was about epauletted fruit bats. Cannon's characters were Gambian epauletted fruit bats, which she chose for their dog-like qualities and friendly-looking features. Cannon signed with a literary agent, Sandra Dijkstra, who placed Stellaluna with the now-defunct publishing company Harcourt Brace Jovanovich (HBJ) in 1993. Plot In a forest far away, a mother fruit bat has a new baby, and names her Stellaluna. One night, an owl attacks the bats, knocking Stellaluna out of her mother's embrace, and she falls into the forest below. Soon the baby bat ends up in a sparrow's nest filled with three baby birds named Pip, Flitter and Flap. The mother bird will let Stellaluna be part of the family only if she eats bugs, does not hang by her feet and sleeps at night. When the birds grow, they learn to fly. When Stellaluna and the birds are out playing, it gets dark and the birds go home without her because they will not be able to see in the dark. Stellaluna keeps flying, but when her wings hurt, she stops to rest. When she does, she hangs by her thumbs. Soon other bats come, and one asks Stellaluna why she is hanging by her thumbs. As she tells the other bats her story, Mother Bat reunites with her and Stellaluna finally understands why she is so different. Excited about learning how to be a bat, Stellaluna returns to Pip, Flitter, and Flap in order to share her new experiences. They agree to join Stellaluna and the bats at night, but find they are unsuited to flying at night and nearly crash. Stellaluna rescues them and the four of them decide that while they may be very different, they are still friends