I love to encourage students, especially such polite ones. So I spent some time researching what a friend of mine used to call "radar rats."

I think I found some sites that fit

Kevin's request -- but when I tried to

e-mail my results to him, I discovered I was blocked by his service provider. (A great safety measure to protect children from unwanted online approaches, but problematic in a case like mine.)

So, I've decided to share my findings with the whole "class" and hope that Kevin sees the column.

• http://batbox.org. Per your request, here's one I can wholeheartedly recommend. BatBox is easy to navigate. It has wonderful photos and great illustrations. Lots of information makes it interesting, a touch of humor makes it fun and dozens of links make it great.

• http://atozteacherstuff.com/Themes/Bats. Great for students and teachers alike. There are all kinds of bat pages here with lesson plans, classroom activities, bat-related trivia and games for several grade levels. Like most lists of links, there are some that have moved or are no longer active. Still, there is plenty here to keep kids busy and to help teachers reach even the most stubborn learners.

• http://imagers.gsfc.nasa.gov. Leave it to NASA to come up with "The Adventure of Echo the Bat." Meet Echo. Read his story, written and beautifully illustrated by Ginger Butcher.

• www.batconservation.org. Although there are sites that contain more specific information about bats' life cycles, habitats and survival requirements, none are more important to the preservation of these much-maligned mammals than this one from the Bat Conservation Organization.

Learn why the world needs these fascinating flyers. And if you still think they're dangerous to people, find out the truth about the bat's bad rabies "rep" in the Bats and Humans section.

• www.chiropteracabins.com. I'll leave it to you to find out why you should want some bats patrolling your neighborhood at night. (Here's a hint -- a single little brown bat can consume as many as 1,000 mosquitoes an hour!) This site sells bat houses, habitats, cabins and condos -- from the simple to the sublime.

Some are pre-assembled, but they also offer kits if you want to build one yourself -- something I think would be a terrific weekend project for the family to do together. Oh yes, they also sell a red bat tie that is so cool -- I've gone simply (wait for it...) ...batty over it.

• www.northrup.org/photos/bat. Some great photos here make this one OK for a fast visit, but on the other hand, the extremely juvenile comments keyed into the comment section are a total waste of space. My advice: snapshots, yes; scroll below, no. Trust me, nothing you'll read there is worth your time.

• www.sluggermuseum.org. Finally, in the off chance that it's not that bat that Kevin wants to write about, I thought I'd tack on a tip to take a trip to the Louisville Slugger Museum, home to baseball's favorite swing thing.

Jan Perry is a Kentucky-based freelance writer who has a special affection for creatures that other folks can't abide.

If you have a favorite animal (or a least favorite one) you'd like to read about in this column -- write to Jan at SiteSeer2K@aol.com and she'll be happy to oblige.