#kenneth oppel

[libraryspectre]

I'm of the belief that horror for children doesn't need to be (and often isn't) less scary than horror for adults. Like any other genre, it's more about handling topics in a child-appropriate way, and maybe addressing fears that are more relevant to children than they are to adults. Horror for children can often hit just as hard as an adult, especially if you're an adult that strongly remembers what it was like to be a kid.

Take The Nest by Kenneth Oppel as an example (spoilers ahead). The main character is a young boy who has a newborn brother. There's something unspecified wrong with the baby - all he knows is that the house is tense, his parents are crying a lot, and making a lot of trips to the hospital. He's visited in his dreams by angels who offer to "fix' the baby, and he accepts, only to learn that these angels are actually wasps who are planning to eat the baby and replace him with a replica they're building in their nest. He tries to take back the offer, but the wasps don't understand why he wouldn't want a new, perfect brother to replace his sick one. In the climatic scene he's huddled in the bathroom with his baby brother as millions of wasps swarm the house.

That book is TERRIFYING. I read it at 25 and felt like my throat was closing up at some parts. Despite this, its intended audience is 8-12 year olds. Many of the fears are more relevant to children - feeling helpless in an adult world, adults not giving you complete information, a sibling taking up all of your parents' attention and energy. But this is also a book about eugenics, even if it never says so explicitly. It's a good introduction to the concept in a way kids can relate to and understand, but it's not any less horrifying as an adult. It features other things that are scary at any age, like swarms of insects, someone you love being replaced by a copy, and the extremely creepy idea that a human child could be born from a wasp nest.

That's why I love reading middle-grade horror in particular! It's a chance to reconnect with childhood fear, and the balancing act of handling serious topics in a child-appropriate way is fascinating to me. Oftentimes horror for this age group is very inventive, because there are common tropes and content that's off-limits. And every once in awhile I find something that is genuinely scary at any age. I love that.

[northern-ghost-13]

my own shade design!

[king-mera]

Checking the #silverwing tag is so frustrating. Get these Game of Thrones bitches out of the way, I'm looking for cartoon bats from 2003!!!

[haveyouseenthisseries-poll]

[coyotemolar]

[wildchild-11]

Own character in Silverwing version

[eekonis]

*throws bats at you*

[chaoskirin]

Book Review--Silverwing by Kenneth Oppel

I always read the reviews before buying a book, but I knew I was going to get this series anyway. I LOVE bats.

I need to put the "bad" first for this, because the rest of my review is glowing. This is a deviation from my norm, but if anyone's started reading the first few pages and thought, "Oh. No." I want to encourage you to KEEP READING.

So the reason I almost put it down after a couple pages because the beginning really doesn't catch my interest as much as it probably should. It seems like it's going to be a rivalry between Big Strong Bat Kid and Little Runt Bat Kid, and while the characters were supposed to be children, the author sort of used stereotypical child interactions, I guess is how I put it. The rival character is named Chinook, which I dislike. It's not really a great idea to name your characters after Native American nations, especially one that's been so repeatedly shafted by the American government. So I have to take points off for that.

In any case, Chinook has a lot of lackeys, one especially, that pretty much kowtows to everything he says. I can't remember lackey's name, though, because thankfully he disappears after the first chapter and is never heard from again.

Interactions after that are MUCH more natural, and I truly enjoyed reading the entire rest of the book. The main character, Shade, is a "newborn," which just means he was born that year. He is capable and decent at hunting, but is slightly naive due to his youth. This is played with wonderfully in the story, and is even mentioned in relation to the other main character, Marina, who is a year (or two, perhaps) older then him. She knows more, and he even calls her a know-it-all in his meta at one point because of her larger span of knowledge.

This story also doesn't treat adult characters as idiots who have to capitulate to the limited knowledge of their own children. Shade has some role models, including Frieda, the elder of his colony, and his mother, Ariel. As well as a mysterious white bat named Zephyr, who has special abilities that have come with blindness and age.

The plot, in summary, is that Shade wants to see the sun, which is forbidden for bats because of their lack of taking a side in an ancient war. The owls patrol the dawn and dusk for any bats who haven't roosted, and are entitled to kill them to maintain the law. When an owl catches Shade out as the sun rises, the king of the owls demands that his colony give him up so he can be killed. That's sort of another problem I have with the book--adult characters of other species (owls/pigeons/etc) have no compulsion to give children any sort of break. It's EXTREMELY cold-hearted, but I can't really take any points off for that. I'm not going to spell out exactly why here, but we've seen the worst in people lately, and I can't really fault the author for discussing things that are happening, for real, in 2023.

Anyway, the colony refuses to give Shade up, despite the protestations of another bat elder, and this starts a war with the owls.

When Shade gets separated from his mother, he has to find his way to a place called the Hibernaculum, but he's not on his own. He meets another young bat, whom I previously mentioned, named Marina.

They also meet the trilogy-long villain, a meat-eating bat named Goth. Goth is a killer, and the actions of him and his lackey, Throbb, mean I find this book a little inappropriate for younger children. I would personally bump the age rating up to 5th grade at the earliest. He's a killer, and has no qualms about dispatching anyone who gets in his way--as well as keeping those alive who are still useful to him. He's an extremely effective villain.

I do want to note here that one other reviewer was like "bats can't do _" and I want to remind everyone that this is a fantasy world. No continents are named--only places--and the animals have been in an uneasy truce for millions of years after a devastating war. They are intelligent, capable, and interesting. I would love to see more worldbuilding, but the amount we got was plenty for me to be able to understand that this takes place on an alternate, fantastical version of earth.

Without posting any spoilers, I can say that the end of the book is satisfying and pretty awesome, and I really couldn't wait until even the next night to start reading it. I immediately opened book 2 (Sunwing) to see what happened next. This review is just for book 1, though, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I can only take one star off for the beginning and the use of Chinook as a name, but I highly recommend this to both appropriately-aged kids and adults.

[flittermousing]

There it is again, that funny feeling

[kidlit-queen-competition]

Qualifier: Kenneth Oppel

[daphnesilverwing]

New stuff, yay lol. I was working on the sketch of this foreverrr

I wanted to draw Murk because I love him, he's so sweet! Underrated guy. Also, I wanted to draw Shade because duh but also because I thought it would be interesting to draw the glow.

[lavinaigrette]

One of the niche adaptational choices that has haunted me for over a decade is the Silverwing animated series’ decision to make Goth and Throbb brother-in-laws. It’s just so random.

[cl0-ud1]

ALRIGHT i see a bunch of kenneth oppel stuff on here but no one talks about the overthrown trilogy.

I (personally) HATE ESTA. i’m sorry but i just do not like her, i have a hate club (with just me) dedicated to esta, i hate that stupid fucking bird lady.

i see seth and petra as very close friends and esta ruins their dynamic because SOMEONE DECIDES TO FUCKING RUN AWAY WITH A GIRL THEY JUST MET *cough cough* SETH *cough cough*

also, personally, darren was cool. aside from what happened, he was cool…

[foxqlove-draws]

ESTA TIME ESTA TIME FUCK YEAH WORST BIRD

SPOILERS FOR THRIVE

[juliapawshine]

Luna and Griffin book Firewing

[kingsbridgelibraryteens]

Middle School Monday: The Nest by Kenneth Oppel, illustrated by Jon Klassen 

Steve’s parents spend a lot of time at the hospital because of his baby brother. The doctors keep running tests to try to figure out what’s wrong with the baby, but they haven’t solved the problem yet. 

The tenth night after the baby was born, Steve had a dream about glittering creatures that looked like angels, and they offered to help the baby. They seemed to understand exactly what his family was going through -- how his parents were so tired and worried, and how his little sister didn’t really understand how sick the baby was. The angels said that the baby had a tiny mistake inside of him, and that they knew how to fix it. It sounded too good to be true, but after so much bad and uncertain news, Steve wanted any reason to have some hope. 

He dreamed of the angels again and again, and while sometimes they seemed kind, sometimes it seemed like they had other motivations that Steve couldn’t understand. Why did they really want to help Steve? And how exactly did they plan to fix his baby brother?

Full disclosure: I first learned about this book through one of the Booklist Summer Scares webinars, and over the last few months I’ve been making my way through a bunch of creepy and fantastic books that I heard about through those discussions. I’ve got to say, this book was one of the MOST creepy and MOST fantastic stories I’ve read in a long time. 

Give this book to older kids and younger teens who love scary stories that are impossible to forget!