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Silverwing (novel)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.

Plot
Part I
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.

The group of 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 set the tree on fire. Despite Bathsheba's complaints, Frieda orders the colony to join the males at Stone Hold, and from there, they 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.

Part II
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 up, 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.

On the way out, Shade and Marina are attacked by an owl. The owl is eaten by two carnivorous bats: Goth and Throbb. Goth and Throbb are responsible for the death of the pigeons and, like Marina, both are banded. Shade offers to escort Goth and Throbb south in return for Goth and Throbb's protection from owls. Goth and Throbb agree, but Goth secretly formulates a plan to feed off the other Silverwings upon finding them. Goth is worried about Marina, who might affect Shade, and instructs Throbb to kill her. However Throbb mistakes another Brightwing bat for Marina and Shade sees Throbb eating it. This puts Shade and Marina on alert and they see Goth and Throbb shot by humans as Shade and Marina make their escape.

Part III
Shade and Marina flee to the sewers of a human town, near the valley in the shape of a wolf's head. In the sewer, they are again mistaken for carnivorous bats by a rat named Remus. However, Remus' brother Romulus believes their story and guides them out of the sewer. Outside the tunnel Shade and Marina are sighted and caught by Goth and Throbb, who threatens to eat them unless Shade guides them to Hibernaculum. Shade feigns acceptance long enough to put Goth and Throbb to sleep with some of the leaves he saw Zephyr use. Having a head start, Shade and Marina fly toward a storm. When Goth and Throbb follow, Goth steals Marina's band in the struggle. However, the bands make them function as lightning rods and lightning strikes killing Throbb and supposedly killing Goth. Shade and Marina continue to Ariel's last landmark, the waterfall. This allows them to find Hibernaculum. The Silverwings adopt Marina while other bats in the Silverwings colony including Shade prepares a journey to find out the truth about the bands and locate Shade's father Cassiel.

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