Kenneth Oppel wrote his first novel, Colin’s Fantastic Video Adventure, when he was just fourteen. He has since gone on to write more than twenty books for children and young adults, among them the million-selling Silverwing Saga. In 2004, Kenneth won the Governor General’s Award for Children’s Literature, for Airborn, and The Times (London) Children’s Novel of 2005, for Skybreaker, which was also named a 2006 Best Book for Young Adults by the American Library Association. His latest novel, Darkwing, brings the reader into a prehistoric world set 65-million years ago, when the very first bat, Dusk, discovers he has the gift of flight.

Dusk is the son of Icaron, the leader of a pack of chiropters (a cousin of the bat) who lived 65 million years ago. Dusk is different from his father and the other chiropters. Not only is he top heavy, he has yet to grow any fur. Little does he realize, he is more different that he knows – he can fly when no other can. Immediately shunned by most of the chiropters, his ability becomes a gift when the island inhabited by the chiropters comes under attack by a pack a felids.