| "SILVERWING"
Author: Kenneth Oppel
Interest Level: Middle Grades (4-8)
ATOS Reading Level: 4.7
AR Points: 9.0
Publisher Recommended Age: 8-12
Publisher: Simon Schuster
Book Type: Trade Paperback
Pages: 314
Book Description:
Shade is a young silverwing bat, the runt of his colony. But he's determined to prove himself on the long, dangerous winter migration to Hibernaculum, millions of wingbeats to the south.
During a fierce storm, he loses the others and soon faces the most incredible journey of his young life. Desperately searching for a way to rejoin his flock, Shade meets a remarkable cast of characters: Marina, a Brightwing bat with a strange metal band on her leg; Zephyr, a mystical albino bat with an unusual gift; and Goth, a gigantic carnivorous vampire bat.
But which ones are friends and which ones are enemies? In this epic story of adventure and suspense, Shade is going to need all the help he can find -- if he hopes to ever see his family again.
Book Reviews:
Publishers Weekly: "...(compares) to Watership Down for the...use of animal characters in (an) investigation of tolerance, intellectual freedom and other social concerns. Ages 8-12.
School Library Journal: "...greatest strengths of this story...fast-paced, cliff-hanging action and its setting within the...bell towers of the bats' monochromatic nighttime world." Grades 4-6.
Book Awards
- Canada: CLA Book of the Year for Children 1998 (Silverwing)
About the Silverwing Series:
The Silverwing series features the adventurs of Shade, a fictional bat. When Shade Silverwing breaks an age-old law, looking at the sun, his home is burned to the ground by a group of owls. Then he is blown out to sea and makes a friend with a Brightwing, named Marina, who has a band on her arm.
They run into some strange bats. They meet Zephyr, a mystical albino with great hearing. They meet Goth and Throbb, two giant bats from the jungle, and they meet Scirocco, a bat intent on becoming human.
Shade will have to go through a test of willpower and strength if he ever wants to see his colony again.
About the Author
While a fifteen-year-old student, Kenneth Oppel wrote his first children's novel, Colin's Fantastic Video Adventure, which was published in 1985. After graduating from high school, Oppel attended the University of Toronto, where he studied English and film. In addition to more than a dozen books for children and young adults, Oppel also writes original screenplays, which have been optioned by producers in London, Toronto, and Hollywood. In 1995 he won the Air Canada Literary Award for "a writer under 30 who shows outstanding promise in the field of literary creation."
Oppel currently lives in Toronto with his wife, Philippa Sheppard, and their children, Sophia and Nathaniel. |
