Although Jarrell completed three children's stories, The Bat Poet is the only one to make use of the bat, or of poetic techniques. In The Gingerbread Rabbit, the main character is a rabbit.

In Fly By Night, Jarrell explores the imagination of a young boy who wants to fly, and in Animal Family, the narrator goes on a journey only to find a mermaid and a "family" composed of animals. In all of his children's stories, Jarrell gives a different expression to the feelings of being lost alone, and somehow different.