The Silverwing Book Series is a series of novels by Kenneth Oppel about the adventures of a young bat. All four books, published between 1997 and 2007, are commonly assigned in the curriculum of upper elementary and middle school grades in Canada, and in some parts of the United States. Summary Prologue: The Great War The great war between the birds and the beasts happened approximately 65 million years after the extinction of the dinosaurs for dominance over the land and sky. The bats, however, seeing themselves as neither birds nor beasts, remained neutral throughout the conflict. Finally a compromise was reached; the birds would control the sky, while the beasts would claim the land. However, because the bats refused to take sides, they were banished from being allowed to fly during the day—not even allowed to so much as look at the sun—ever again; only emerging at night. The war is based on Aesop's Fables called "The Birds, the Beasts and the Bat." Sun Freedom (Silverwing and Sunwing) As Shade Silverwing looks at the sun, the owls destroy Tree Haven. While the Silverwing bats are migrating to Hibernaculum, he gets swept to sea. After Shade meets Marina Brightwing on an island, they head to the city. They encounter many other characters such as Zephyr, a bat who can see through the past and future, the cannibals Goth and Throbb, the rat kings Romulus and Remus, and humans who attempt to capture or kill them. Shade stays with Marina and finds his colony at Hibernaculum. After hibernating for two days, some members of the colony go on a journey to find Cassiel, who disappeared after finding the truth about the humans. When they find a building called "paradise" with bats living in it, the colony finds out that Cassiel is absent. While the other bats make themselves at home, Shade and Marina escape. After being separated, Shade ends up in the jungle, teams up with Orestes and finds out that sacrifices were being made at the Vampyrum Spectrum pyramid in order to banish the sun, and that Cassiel will also be a sacrifice. After Shade and Marina free the bats, owls and rats in order to defeat Goth, the owls permit the bats to look at the sun, while Marina and Shade become mates. Underworld (Firewing) Years later while Shade returns to Tree Haven for the first time, his son