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1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available
Shade, a young silverwing bat, is the runt of his colony. Determined to show how brave he is, Shade breaks one of the ancient rules that governs the bats. As punishment, owls burn the bats' roost, forcing them to migrate earlier than normal. While on the trip south to the Hibernaculum, Shade becomes separated from his flock during a rain storm. His destination is millions of wing beats away. Now he must find a way to make the journey on his own. Along the way, he'll meet up with bats of different species—some friendly, some not. Shade will have to learn quickly which ones to trust if he's ever going to see his family again. A Smithsonian Notable Book for Children, Silverwing combines action, fantasy and factual information on bats into an unforgettable tale. John McDonough's soaring narration brings Shade and and his colony to life.
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    • Publisher's Weekly

      May 3, 1999
      PW compared this "gripping" epic starring a bat to Watership Down for the author's use of animal characters in his investigation of tolerance, intellectual freedom and other social concerns. Ages 8-12.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      This absorbing tale mixes scientific detail (explaining echo-location and bug-catching from a bat's perspective) with the world of fantasy (creatures can speak, and a war is brewing between the owl and bat kingdoms). SILVERWING also depicts the sometimes brutal reality of a wild world in which creatures may die of cold or be eaten by one another, and is better suited to older children or those listening with an adult. But adults and young listeners alike will appreciate John McDonough's outstanding narration, which creates great depth of character in the main cast while managing to distinguish the story's many "extras." McDonough makes the hours of listening fly. J.C.G. (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      September 29, 1997
      Oppel (Dead Water Zone) turns to animal fantasy with this mostly absorbing adventure story about a bat named Shade, the runt of the Silverwing colony. Although Shade is small for his age, he is curious and a bit obsessive, in some ways a Jonathan Livingston Seagull of the bat community. He longs to see the sun, strictly forbidden to the bats by the other animals; he even wishes to bring sunlight to his colony, as "the greatest gift of all." His obsession, he learns later, was shared by his missing father, who thought Humans would help bats return to the daylight. His actions cause their bitter enemies, the owls, to burn his colony's nesting site just before the bats migrate south. Shade is separated from the others during a storm, and the bulk of the narrative chronicles his attempts to rejoin them. Along the way, he meets and befriends Marina, a bat of another species, driven out by fear of the band that Humans have placed on her wing. Together they escape a squad of pigeons, marauding owls and carnivorous bats seeking to return south to the jungle, among other hazards. This epic journey is gripping, and details of bat life are inventively and convincingly imagined, though Shade's (and other bats') quasi-religious yearnings and struggles over tolerance, intellectual freedom and other abstractions get a little too much emphasis. As in Watership Down and other examples of this genre, the animals provide a conduit for their creator's social concerns. Ages 8-12.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

Languages

  • English

Levels

  • Lexile® Measure:660
  • Text Difficulty:3

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