Silverwing (novel)
First edition
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| Author | Kenneth Oppel |
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| Country | Canada |
| Language | English |
| Series | Silverwing series |
| Published | 1997 (HarperCollins) |
| Pages | 128 |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 35977345 |
| Followed by | Sunwing |
Silverwing is a best-selling children's novel, written by Kenneth Oppel, first published in 1997 by HarperCollins. It tells the story of a colony of silverwing bats. The tone and artistic ambition of this series of bestsellers has been compared to the classic animal novel Watership Down
. Silverwing is the first installment of the Silverwing series, though it is chronologically the second novel in the sequence after Darkwing.
Shade is a young Silverwing bat whose father disappeared before he was born. He lives with his mother Ariel and is bullied by other newborns, especially Chinook and his friends, for being the runt of his colony. Shade challenges Chinook to look at the sun, an act forbidden by the owls. When Chinook backs down from the challenge, Shade looks at the sun, attracting the attention of an owl. Four elders, Bathsheba, Aurora, Lucretia and Frieda, try to discipline Shade at Tree Haven, the Silverwings' roost. Instead, Frieda takes Shade to an Echo Chamber storing the history of the bats and their rivalry with the owls. She shows him a metal band on her wrist and says that the bat goddess Nocturna gave it to her as part of a promise that bats would one day return to the sun.
Soon the local owls, led by General Brutus, come to Tree Haven to get pay back on Shade. When the bats refuse to hand over Shade, the owls burn down Tree Haven. Despite Bathsheba's complaints, Frieda orders the Silverwing colony to join the males at Stone Hold and, from there, migrate to their winter retreat of Hibernaculum. Before the journey, Ariel teaches Shade a sound map, which uses landmarks such as a cathedral, a valley shaped like a wolf's head and a waterfall. While Shade's colony is migrating, a strong storm breaks out and separates Shade from his colony. Shade lands on a human fishing boat and meets Marina, a Brightwing bat who, like Frieda, is banded. A passing Graywing colony offers to help Shade relocate the Silverwings. However, he decides to go with Marina instead upon hearing that banded bats are not welcome in their group.
After making it to the city, Shade and Marina are almost mutilated by pigeons who have mistaken them for carnivorous bats. They escape to a cathedral where they meet an albino bat named Zephyr who puts Shade to sleep with a mysterious leaf. When Shade wakes, he sees humans for the first time: praying in the cathedral. Zephyr tells Shade that he is a seer who has foreseen where Shade must go to find Frieda. He also says that Shade's father Cassiel is still alive.
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