Silverwing

Silverwing is the name of a popular Canadian novel written by Kenneth Oppell.

The novel and its sequels tell the story of a colony of silverwing bats with particular focus on an undersized runt named Shade. In the novel and its immediate sequel, Sunwing, tells the story of Shade and his friends' struggle to find his father and free his people from an ancient and unjust punishment. The second sequel, Firewing involves the adventures of Shade's child.

The punishment came about long ago when a great war was fought between the birds and the land animals while the bats, sharing aspects of both, declared themselves neutral. As a result, the bats were banished to the night never to see the sun again without suffering terrible penalties. Shade sets the main plot of the novel in motion when he impestuously defies that law and inadvertantly sets a chain of events in motion that led to his colony's home's destruction, their premature migration and his separation from them.

The series, which has been described as taking a similar tone and artistic ambition of the classic animal novel Watership Down, has proven highly successful bestsellers.

The book as been adapted into a successful animated television series called, Silverwing on the Canadian cable channel, Teletoon.