When author Brian Lies first began writing and illustrating “Bats at the Beach,” he had no idea it would become a New York Times bestseller, along with the sequels, “Bats at the Library” and “Bats at the Ballgame.”

“I was actually worried about the 'ick' factor with the bats,” Lies said. “Quite the opposite happened; in fact I've been blown away by how many people love bats.

“I've come to really like bats as well; they are an important part of the ecosystem. They are in some peril right now, so bat houses to give them shelter are a great thing.”

Lies will be touring Maine August 9-13 to promote his newest bat book, “Bats in the Band.” He will be driving in his brand new “Batwagon,” which includes a PVC pipe organ attached to the side people can play on and two large musical bats, a guitarist and conductor, attached to the rooftop rack.

On August 11 at 1 p.m., his tour will bring him to Sherman's bookstore in downtown Boothbay Harbor.

“My wife Laurel (my awesome PR guru) and I do our best to avoid the typical thing, the morose guy behind the card table in the store hoping someone will beat a path back to him. We'd rather have some fun! We bring the Batwagon, share our joy of both reading and music, and hopefully people will come and have some fun. We're planning on holding impromptu kazoo concerts and giving out temporary tattoos that have a bat holding a book that say ‘I'm batty for reading’.”

Lies grew up in Princeton, N.J. and currently lives in Boston, about five miles from the coast. Maine holds a special place in his heart, mostly because of the bookstores.

“I’ve launched all the bat books on the Maine coast,” Lies said. “Independent booksellers from Bar Harbor to Portland have been some of my biggest ‘batvocates’ — advocates of the bat books who've supported me since the beginning. People like Jeff Curtis at Sherman's.”

“Bats in the Band” is the story of bats winging into a theater for a night full of music of many different genres, everything from country and blues to classical, rock and dance. At the end of the night as the sun rises, the concert winds down and the bats head home.

“Bats in the Band” is partially dedicated to music educators, a role Lies feels is especially important in today's world — even if he isn't very musically talented.

“I call myself a frustrated musician,” Lies said. “I took piano and violin lessons as kid and wasn't very good at it. But I love music, everything from Mozart to Green Day, and on my birthday I got a drum kit which is really fun to pound on.”

The Bats series all started many years ago when Lies' daughter, now a freshman in college, was in second grade. It was a very cold morning when she pointed out to her father the bumps of frost and frozen sea foam on a window, which looked very much like a smiling bat standing in water with ocean waves crashing around him.

“Once we got her bundled up and off to school, I stopped to think about the little ice bat. I realized I'd never read a story about bats going to a beach, and I found myself wondering what they would do,” Lies said.

He began working on “Bats at the Beach” that very day.

“I never intended to write rhyming books,” Lies said. “When I started working that morning I wrote down a list of things bats might do at the beach when one line popped into my head: ‘Quick, call out! Tell all you can reach: The night is just perfect for bats at the beach!’ and after that, the words started marching in rhyme in my head.”

“I work hard to not make the rhyme more important than the story,” Lies said. “I don't want it to sound sing-songy, but instead conversational and flowing. I put a lot of time and care into getting it right.”

Lies is currently working on illustrations for the sequel to “Malcolm at Midnight” by W.H. Beck, and has ideas for four picture books that don't involve bats. He was recently in Portland for a segment of the “207” TV program, which will air August 7.

Lies appearance schedule is: Sherman's in Bar Harbor on August 9 at 6 p.m., Sherman's in Camden on August 10 at 1 p.m., Sherman's in Boothbay Harbor August 11 at 1 p.m., Maine Coast Book Shop in Damariscotta August 12 at 11 a.m., Barnes & Noble in Augusta on August 12 at 6:30 p.m., and Sherman's in Portland on August 13 at 1 p.m.

Lies very much enjoys writing and illustrating books for children, and has written close to 30 at last count (six of which he both wrote and illustrated).

“Kids have a great unedited eye to the world,” Lies said. “We adults could use a refresher course — and if we pay attention to what they are seeing, we get amazing insights into our world.”