Editorial Review

In this breathtaking sequel to the Governor General's Award-winning fantasy novel Read more

Reviews (13)

A fantastic read!
I was so eager to get to SKYBREAKER after AIRBORN I ordered it from the bookstore, started it and five hours later was done. I couldn't put it down. After AIRBORN I had no idea what else could happen to Matt and Kate, but Oppell continues to surprise and astound you with his vivid imagination and talent to bring his story to life. As I read about their adventures in obtaining a mystical, ghost-like air-ship in the sky, I felt as if I was seeing the movie in my head. His attention to detail and ability to bring the characters to life leave you wanting more. You also find yourself cheering on Matt and Kate, and a few other new characters, as they try to obtain what everyone else has failed at...the elusive HYPERION. Now, I'm am anxiously awaiting a 3rd book! This second book was just as good as the first, similar to Harry Potter in nature this book will appeal to all kinds of adults and children. I would recommend reading AIRBORN before reading this one to get the full background on our hero, Matt Cruse!

A Very Good Book
I really liked Skybreaker by Kenneth Oppel. It is an excellent sequel to the first book, Airborn. It's setting ranges from France all the way to Antarctica as the game goes on. Although no time frame is given, I believe that it was set in the past. The genre is a mix between historical fiction, sci-fi, and mystery. The past setting separates it from other sci-fi stories, and the fact that it strays so much from historical fact (flying jellyfish-squid things) seperates it from pure historical fiction. I believe that anyone who likes a good adventure story would like this book, due to the fact that that is what this book is.
Skybreaker Response
I loved this book! I simply couldn't put it down. Kenneth Oppel has a great way of keeping my eyes glued to the book. I couldn't hold the suspense most of the time; I found my eyes skipping to the bottom of the page. Luckily, I forced myself to go back and read it so I would understand what was happening! This book took me 2 days to finish reading, it was very captivating and I had a hard time putting it away. I like the way he told the story because every chapter continued from the last and it was very exciting to read on although it was a long book.
Read more

Subjects:  1. Action & Adventure - General    2. Airships    3. Children's Books/Ages 9-12 Fiction    4. Children: Young Adult (Gr. 7-9)    5. Fiction    6. Imaginary creatures    7. Juvenile Fiction    8. Pirates    9. Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Magic    10. Juvenile Fiction / Science Fiction, Fantasy, Magic   

Reviews (48)

A Unique way to be Airborn
Matt Cruse, the star of Kenneth Oppel's Airborn, is landsick.Aboard the airship Aurora, he is always fine, but on the ground, not so.Matt is a cabin boy on Aurora and, in only his second year as a cabin boy, he rescues a man from a hot air balloon.When the man is dying, he talks of beautiful flying creatures.A year later with the man's granddaughter, Kate, Matt starts a quest to uncover these mysterious creatures.
Up Up and away!
This is an excellent adventure story! Matt Cruse has spent most of his life in the air ...on a luxury passenger airship.He rescues a dying balloonist, meets the balloonists granddaughter, sees mysterious flying creatures, and takes on pirates. This action story has it all!

Mmm....dirigibles.
I found this book so engaging that I finished it in a week. There are airships. There are pirates. There are mysterious creatures. There is more swashbuckling than you can shake a fake cutlass at. There is so much goodness in this book that I want to eat it just to get every last bit of goodness out and have it for my very own.
Read more

Subjects:  1. Action & Adventure - General    2. Airships    3. Children's Books/Ages 9-12 Fiction    4. Children: Young Adult (Gr. 7-9)    5. Fiction    6. Imaginary creatures    7. Juvenile Fiction    8. Pirates    9. Science Fiction / Fantasy (Young Adult)    10. Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Magic    11. Juvenile Fiction / Science Fiction, Fantasy, Magic   

Features

• Box set

Reviews (96)

Great set for kids!
This is a wonderful book set for children.It stirs the imagination and paints colorful pictures in the mind.The story of Shade Silverwing and his struggles is wonderful and does discribe several differant speicies of bats.At the end of each book the author tells about the bats that inspired him.He describes the entire world through sound (not colors).There are so many good points about this set and I hope that there are more coming!I highly recommend this to any parent that is trying to get their child into reading again.It is so loved that ToonDisney has made a series of it!

Amazing book.
This is one of my favorite books, and I'm sure anyone would enjoy reading this wonderful book.

SILVERWING
Silverwing was an excellent story. It was action packed, sad, surprising, and so much more. Out of all the books that I have read it would have to be on my top ten books, because I really like how the beginning of this book starts with just one lonely bat trying to find some food in the middle of the night.This book wanted me to read more from the very first page. I would love to read to sequel to this book called Sunwing. This book really caught my attention just from the cover. But over all this has got to be my favorite book my Kenneth Oppel by far. This book makes you feel like you are Shade the main character. When he is just flying around in the dark nighttime. Or when some of the bullies are making fun of him. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Action & Adventure    2. Action & Adventure - General    3. Animals - Mammals    4. Children's 9-12 - Fiction - General    5. Children's Books/Ages 9-12 Fiction    6. Children: Grades 3-4    7. Juvenile Fiction    8. Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Magic    9. Juvenile Fiction / Action & Adventure   

Reviews (43)

Firewing
BOY.that was one of the greatest books... until the end! Gosh! First griffin(shades son) is trying to find the tree of life to get back to his normal world,but theres this problem.!!!SPOILER WARNING!!!at the very end, griffin gets bitten by his fathers dead worst enemy and dies, then shade commits suicide!!!??? You heard me right, dead,but since its the underworld hes aliuve but still has a body to uh live in.Right?? I hate thAt part but its not the worst!then griffin and the bat he killed at the very beginning (luna) get his life force, and go back to theyre world,while dead shade,making a stupendously unsatisfying ending flys through the portal and gets back in the world as a sort of nothing that can feel what its like to be anything,but can NEVER COMMUNICATE to anyone(not even other spirits). sounds more like eternal torment than eternal paradise.At the end you can just "assume" that griffin married the bat who he killed!and luna married the bat that she strangled half the life out of(literally)because he killed her.I dont realy understand the happy ending in that.

Horrible ending.
I liked Silverwing & Sunwing, but this is just bad compared to them! This should have had Shade as the main character, and should not have had him die in the end!

Breathtaking action
After I finsihed reading this book it took me a while to adjust to what I read.When I was done I even cried a little.I can't even believe Oppel would have Shade die at the end.If he doesn't come out with a fourth book and have Shade come back to life I'm going to be furious!I highly recommend this book to anyone who loved the first two. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Action & Adventure - General    2. Animals - Mammals    3. Bats    4. Children's Books/Ages 9-12 Fiction    5. Children: Grades 4-6    6. Fiction    7. Juvenile Fiction    8. Juvenile Science Fiction / Fantasy    9. Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Magic    10. Juvenile Fiction / Action & Adventure   

Reviews (36)

As good as the first!
This book is as good as the first one, and is as enjoyable as the first as well. But, don't read Firewing, you'll hate it. I did.

One of the BEST books I've ever read
Sunwing was one of the BEST books I've EVER read! It has lots of fiction in it but, it also has a large amount of true facts in it also. I truly reomend this book. And it has a bunch of action and adventure in it. And I think people who like animals such as, bats, mice, owls etc. will LOVE this book completley.
Interesting
My daughter is 9 years old and not into traditional girl stuff.She enjoys stories that feature animals.Shehas firewing and one other in the series qnd has enjoyed them all. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Action & Adventure    2. Action & Adventure - General    3. Animals - Mammals    4. Bats    5. Children's 9-12 - Fiction - Fantasy    6. Children's Books/Ages 9-12 Fiction    7. Children: Grades 4-6    8. Fathers and sons    9. Fiction    10. Juvenile Fiction    11. Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Magic    12. Juvenile Fiction / Action & Adventure   

Reviews (1)

Energetic and fun
This engaging, infectious tall tale is lots of fun.It's a rollicking story about a girl who sets out to be the world's best fisherman and catch a whale.Undeterred by the fact that it's a mammal, she hooks one with her fishing rod, and ends up taken for a ride.She makes herself at home in the whale's belly, keeps warm in the Arctic by singing sea shanties, and eventually steers the whale home.The tale's outrageous tone never falters and Peg is so brash and insistent that she's believable, despite the outlandishness of her story. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Action & Adventure    2. Action & Adventure - General    3. Animals - Fishes    4. Animals - Marine Life    5. Children's 4-8 - Fiction - General    6. Children: Kindergarten    7. Fiction    8. Fishing    9. Juvenile Fiction    10. Tall tales    11. Whales    12. Whaling    13. Juvenile Fiction / Action & Adventure   

Reviews (3)

Not the author's best work
I bought this book because I loved and adored Oppel's novel Airborn. Unfortunately, this much earlier work is not nearly so well-written. The imagery was pretty darn nifty, and the premise was moderately intriguing, but unfortunately that's really all it had going for it. The characters were uniformly static and the plot was generic. Try something more recent of Oppel's.

Great Read, But Not Oppel's Best
Dead Water Zone is a short read, with a very original plot and contains unique characters. I personally love Oppel's work, but others work of his is much better, such as the Silverwing Trilogy. This book's plot is very bizarre, and I found it easy to follow it. But, I can see some of my friend [and other people] getting lost in it's uncannyness. If your a teen, and want a good short read, this is the book you want.

I love this book I recomend you get it
I'm 14 and I have to read for school you have to get a certin amount of points to gaduate.I hate reading but after I read this book I love reading.So I recomend you get this book or Journy to the center of theEarth ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Brothers    2. Brothers and sisters    3. Children's Books - Young Adult    4. Children: Young Adult (Gr. 7-9)    5. Fiction    6. General    7. Science Fiction / Fantasy (Young Adult)    8. Science fiction   

Subjects:  1. Children: Grades 4-6   

Reviews (1)

He Saw Angel Mist...
Zach is tending to his flock of sheep down the hill when angels appear to his brothers and tell them to go to Bethlehem.When Zach returns to the campfire, he finds a note telling him where his brothers went, and that they saw angels.Zach doesn't believe them, but then he looks up and on the tree is angel mist.Now Zach must go to Bethlehem too, he wants to see angels.But he has one problem, he can't leave his sheep alone, they're the stupidest sheep in the world.So Zach starts to make his way to Bethlehem with the sheep.Along the way, he meets up with several problems - sheep thieves, a river, and a hill that his sheep can't climb.At each test of his patience with his sheep, there is always someone who comes to Zach's rescue.And strangely, each rescuer resembles one another.Could this be the angel Zach was looking for? ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Children's 9-12 - Fiction - General    2. Holidays & Celebrations - Christmas   

Subjects:  1. Children's stories, Canadian    2. Children: Grades 4-6    3. Fiction    4. Science fiction    5. Video games   

Subjects:  1. Animals - Birds    2. Children's Books/Ages 4-8 Fiction    3. Children: Grades 1-2    4. Humorous Stories    5. Juvenile Easy Readers    6. Juvenile Fiction    7. Readers - Beginner    8. Readers - Chapter Books    9. Short Stories