Silverwing series

The Silverwing Book Series is a series of novels by Kenneth Oppel about the adventures of a young bat. All four books, published between 1997, 1998, 2002 and 2007, are commonly assigned in the curriculum of upper elementary and middle school grades in Canada, and in some parts of the United States.

The great war between the birds and the beasts happened approximately 65 million years after the extinction of the dinosaurs. As the bats declined the war, the two factions banished the bats into not seeing the sun again. The war is based on Aesop's Fables called "The Birds, the Beasts and the Bat."

As Shade Silverwing looks at the sun, the owls destroy Tree Haven. While the Silverwing bats are migrating to Hibernaculum, he gets swept to sea. After Shade meets Marina Brightwing at the deserted island, they head to the city. They encounter many other characters such as Zephyr, a bat who can see through the past and future, the cannibals Goth and Throbb, the rat kings Romulus and Remus, and humans who attempt to capture or kill. Shade stays with Marina and find the colony at Hibernaculum. After hibernating for two days, the colony went on a journey to find Cassiel, in which Icarus explained that he disappeared after finding the truth about the humans. When they find a building called "paradise" with bats living in it, the colony finds out that Cassiel is absent despite Shade's sound map. While the other bats make themselves at home, Shade and Marina escape. After being separated, Shade ends up in the jungle, teams up with Orestes and finds out that sacrifices were being made at the Vampyrum Spectrum pyramid, in order to banish the sun, and that Cassiel will sacrifice himself. After Shade and Marina free the bats, owls and Cassiel to defeat Goth, the owls permit the bats to look at the sun, while Marina and Shade mate up.

Years later while Shade returns to Tree Haven for the first time, Griffin falls to the underground after accidentally dropping a fiery stick on his friend Luna. Finding out that dead bats live here forgetting that they died, he finds multiple bats with a strange glow. At the underworld, Cama Zotz orders the revived Goth to hunt down Griffin. After the dying Frieda gives the sound map to Griffin, he and Luna fail to escape from the underworld, and helped by other dead bats that know each other. Goth nearly kills Griffin and Luna, but Shade gives life for the two who return to the upper world.

The Northern Bats have an Elder hierarchy, with one being elected high elder. Silverwings are based on the Silver-Haired Bat.

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