12. Silverwing: the graphic novel

By Kenneth Oppel (illustrated by Christopher Steininger)

Since she's been able to read, I've borrowed tons and tons of comics and graphic novels from the Mordecai Richler library for my 11 yo daughter.  Many of them are series, and very occasionally she'll go to me and say, can you get me the next book? as she wants to find out what happens next. 

I've heard of the Silverwing series of books by Kenneth Oppel, but didn't know much about them.  My daughter hadn't read the books yet so when I saw the graphic novel at the library last week, I just signed it out, as I wasn't sure if my daughter would be interested in reading the whole series. Besides, the graphics looked intriguing (like Watership Down, but with bats!) and the illustrations were dope.  

Then last Sunday, as I was helping her out of the bath, she told me, you know that book you got from the library, Silverwing?  It was really good.  I was like oh yeah?  And she launched into a brief summary of the story about this bat colony and how they were at war with the birds, etc. etc.

I told her the graphic novel is actually based on a real book, and there are a whole series of them, but this graphic novel is just the first one, and it came out in 2023.  Would you be interested in reading the actual books?  She goes, sure, I guess.  Which is her way of expressing interest.  So cool!  Now I just have to search out the Silverwing series of books now!  Maybe we'll find some while used book hunting in Vancouver!

And my curiosity was piqued, so I picked up the graphic novel and was able to read it at a leisurely pace in two days.  It was a very exciting adventure story about a runty bug-eating Silverwing bat named Shade who gets separated from his colony while they were migrating south for the winter.  He meets a Brightwing bat named Marina who helps him on his journey to catch up with his colony.  There's background info about the ancient conflict between the owls and the bats, as well as bat lore and legend.  But the main narrative is on Shade and Marina get into various mishaps and misadventures, including getting themselves involved with two scary giant carnivorous jungle bats who turn out to be evil monsters who have no issue eating "lesser" bats.  

The illustrations of the Goth and Throb's bloody goblin-esque faces as they ate their prey and fought with Shade and Marina were really amazing.  And when Shade and Marina saw all the metal bands lining the edge of Goth and Throb's wings - which meant that they must have EATEN all the human-worshipping barn bats!

Although I enjoyed the story immensely, it didn't make me want to seek out the original books to read.  However, I will encourage my daughter to read them so she can explain to me what happens next!