Silverwing

The first, and arguably the best book we read this year was “Silverwing” by Kenneth Oppel. We chose it because it was one of our favourites from when we were in grade school. It is such an original story and captivating to read. We had a lot buzz around this book as all the members enjoyed it greatly. This is what we refer to as the “Golden Age of Book Club” where discussion was rich, the numbers were great and the members were happy. We decided that this book would be great to read to the class as it adhered to both boys and girls and dealt with a lot of issues that could be related to the curriculum, specifically science and technology.

These are the discussion questions that we asked:

Part 1

• Did the Echo Chamber remind you of anything? The older messages had a hiss to them but the newer ones were louder and more clear, what else in our world is like that?
• Did anyone notice how some things were named? Hibernaculum - hibernation, Marina - found on an island surrounded by water…
• How did you feel when the Tree Haven collapsed and the echoes were lost?

Part 2

• What did you originally think of Goth’s character? What type of character did you expect him to be?
• Now that you know of Goth’s (foiled) plans, what do you think will be in store for Shade and Marina?
• How do the characters of Shade and Goth compare? Does Goth’s arrogance and sense of superiority remind you of any other literary characters?
• Compare Goth’s culture with Shade’s. What similarities are there? What about the differences?
• Describe what Zephyr, Shade, and Goth think of the war that’s brewing between the birds and the bats
• What is the significance of Zephyr’s wings?
• Read passage: “Then, with a sigh, he spread his pale wings, as if they would somehow help him trap sound.
• As Shade watched silently, the underside of his wings seemed to darken. Shade blinked, wondering if his eyes were playing tricks on him, maybe the paleness of Zephyr’s flesh was somehow weirdly reflecting the sky. But the wings definitely seemed to be turning black and then sparkling when-” (139-140)
• Later Marina describes Zephyr’s wings - “They were as black as night-and they were filled with stars” (141)
• Goth explains how humans are not friends to bats and that “they will be punished” - What did you expect his punishment to be?
• Discuss the significance of being banded - “What do you know, you’re not even banded” (Marina, p. 158)
• Predictions: Do you think it will be possible for Shade to find his father? Is he really with the humans? What do you predict?

Part 3

• Describe the relationship between Marina and Shade.
• Why do you think Romulus and Remus were part of this story?
• How did you feel reading the climatic sequence?
• What do you think Goth will do now that he is seeking revenge?
• What was your overall opinion of this book? Is this something you’d be interested in teaching to your students?
• What kinds of curriculum tie ins can you think of? (Just off the top of your head)
• What kinds of activities do you think you could do with this?
• Are you interested in reading the next installments of the story?

*We did not come up with all of these discussion questions.  Some were borrowed from Kenneth Oppel’s website!