4Real Forums: Silverwing??

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kingvozzo
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Posted: March 05 2007 at 2:21pm \| IP Logged

Does anyone know anything about this series of books?
My oldest saw this at the library and borrowed it. His reading of it is contingent on my reading it first (or doing a read aloud), but I wanted to check with you all and see if you knew anything pro or con. It seems as if it's in the same basic vein as Redwall, but I still haven't found the time to preview it.
It sure does get harder to keep up with the books the kids read as they get older!

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Noreen
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kingvozzo
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Posted: March 06 2007 at 10:45pm \| IP Logged

Anyone???

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Noreen
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MaryM
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Posted: March 07 2007 at 1:23am \| IP Logged

OK, Noreen, I'll bite. I saw your request the first time, but was waiting for someone more articulate with book reviews or with a fresher memory of them (or who generally is more familiar in general with fantasy books than I am - not my genre)to post . It's been quite a few years (probably about 7) so I'm fuzzy on specifics and this will be more about feeling. We have big Redwall fans here, too, and I think that was some of the appeal of these books when we saw them - plus bats - very intriguing. We started the series as a read aloud. My oldest two would have been about 11 and 8 at the time. There were many good things in Silverwing. I liked how much we learned about bat flight, behavior, and echolocation - so it has good science/nature study. And the books are full of adventure and lots of action - they definitely keep you wanting to go on to that next chapter. So in general we enjoyed the first one, Silverwing, though there was something in the back of my mind that just didn't let me fully embrace it - though I would not be able to put my finger on it and would have to read it again to know for sure.

Then we read the second one, Sunwing, and it is much darker with more really evil characters. Cannibalism and bat sacrifice and ritual in Mayan temples (ancient Mayan temples are the home of the evil jungle bats). It kind of creeped me out while still being intriguing. My 8 year old was torn, because the story line really did pull a reader in and engage, but it did scare him. I started reading ahead at night and did skip/gloss over some sections, as I recall, though I can't remember the specific ones. We could have just stopped altogether but they did want to find out what happened in the end. But after we read it I opted not to read the next one and no one seemed to mind. They weren't begging for more like with many books. My oldest didn't ask to read it on his own either and he was the voracious Redwall fan.

I often feel like I am pretty critical of recent YA fiction and that could be the case here. And I am just not a big fan of fantasy in general and haven't read a lot to compare - I know there are often very dark and evil elements in fantasy so this may be fairly tame. So now that I've posted someone may very well come here and say how much they enjoyed the books. But anyway even if at some time your son may want to read them looking at his age I would say he might be on the young side for the content. I do suggest that you read them first to decide - and like I said Silverwing was better than Sunwing and I don't know about the third.

You are so right it does get harder the older they get to be able to keep ahead of their reading choices. I did to some degree, but there was no way to always do that. What I found was that if it was a newer book and in the YA section I did try to read or skim, definitely looked for reviews. Even if the reviews were glowing ones, I could often tell if the content and what the reviewers were so excited about was appropriate. I have to say that many times there was just this little voice telling me to take a closer look at a book (surely the Holy Spirit) and that was when I would really read it. Mostly that was right on target for catching books I didn't want them to read and sometimes there was nothing really that I could put my finger on but I did try to listen to that voice. There are so many books out there that are known and good that I tried to steer in that direction. Was there a little voice asking you about these books, Noreen?

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margot helene
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Posted: March 07 2007 at 7:20pm \| IP Logged

I'm glad to read your review Mary. We did Silverwing as a read aloud here a few years ago and the kids loved it. But like you, there was something intangible that I didn't really like about it. The idea for the story is based on the fable that explains why the bat only flies at night, which is kind of clever story premise. (We looked it up after reading the book)There was one part that I thought was a little new agey, where the little bat sees the history of the bats in a special cave -- I can't remember all the details.

But anyway, the little bat saves the whole colony after first causing something to go horribly wrong (he is caught out after sun-up--a grevious violation). In most of the book, the colony is moving to a new place - a better place for bats - and the owls and the evil cannibal bats are pursuing them. The cannibal bats want the colony to come to South America where they live so they can eat them.
We never got the second one because the kids never asked to read on even though the first book ends unresolved in some ways. Now I'm glad we let that one pass.

Margot

Erin
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Posted: June 13 2011 at 7:21pm \| IP Logged

Just found this after ds14 read it. He had plenty to say, he wasn't quite happy with parts of it. Some of the bats were cannibals and the 'band bats' were trying to transform into humans.

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Erin
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