Darkwing (Silverwing) - Softcover

Oppel, Kenneth

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1554680158 ISBN 13: 9781554680153

Publisher: HarperTrophy, 2008

Synopsis

Before there were bats like Shade, Marina or even Goth, there was a young chiropter—a small arboreal glider—named Dusk. Unlike other chiropters, who can only glide down from their colony’s home in a giant sequoia tree, Dusk can actually fly, a skill that makes him an outcast. But when Carnassial, a felid, and one of the world’s first mammalian carnivores, leads a savage massacre of the chiropters, Dusk’s strange ability transforms him into the colony’s saviour.

CBA Children’s Author of the Year (2006) and winner of the Governor General’s Award, Kenneth Oppel, takes readers back 65 million years to a time of upheaval, as the last saurians fall and mammals rise. A thrilling story of dangers and dark secrets, heroes and terrifying villains, backed up by natural history made all the more incredible by its reality, Darkwing is a blockbuster adventure.

About this title

About the Author

KENNETH OPPEL wrote his first novel at age fourteen and hasn’t looked back. His books include the Silverwing series, which has sold over a million copies around the world; Airborn, winner of a Governor General’s Award and the Michael L. Printz Award; and his latest, Inkling, which the New York Times called “astonishing.” Ken Oppel lives with his family in Toronto. You can find him online at kennethoppel.ca and on Twitter at @kennethoppel.

 

From School Library Journal

Grade 5–8—The story of Darkwing is set 65 million years ago, during the early Paleocene era just years after the enormous C-T dieback event. Dusk and his family are chiropters, small arboreal mammals that glide and feed on insects. Changes are coming to their world, and not the least of them are Dusk's abilities of flight and echolocation. Although his family stands by him, most of the colony is very uncomfortable with his flying, fearing reprisal from the birds that live above them in the trees. All concerns about Dusk's oddities or their avian neighbors are swept aside when an outcast prowl of felids, led by the bloodthirsty Carnassial, attack the colony and Dusk's special abilities help to guide his fellows and keep them safe. During their search for a new home, his quick wits are all that stand between the colony and disaster. In their quest, the chiropters encounter deadly predators, from saurian holdouts to shrewlike soricids with poisonous saliva. Betrayals from both within the colony and without add to the excitement in this adventure. Readers will feel for Dusk as he decides repeatedly not to abandon his colony, despite their treatment of him. In Darkwing, Oppel offers a celebration of difference in addition to a wonderful imagining of a pivotal moment in evolution. An author's note highlights some of the actual fossil species that appear. One cautionary note—the descriptions of animals eating each other may be disturbing to sensitive readers.—Eric Norton, McMillan Memorial Library, Wisconsin Rapids, WI
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About this edition

• Publisher: HarperTrophy
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 1554680158
• ISBN 13: 9781554680153
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 336