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2004
finalists.

2004 Hackmatack

Children's Choice Book Award/Prix littéraire - le choix de jeunes

As the earth splits and heaves in a terrible quake, Griffin feels his small bat body being sucked into a fissure deep below Tree Haven. Shade, Griffin's father, soon realizes that his son has been drawn into the Underworld, where legend dictates that if the living stumble into the land of the dead, they have only a short time before death claims them too. Shade knows he must find Griffin quickly. What he doesn't realize is that Goth, the powerful and evil Vampire bat, is also hunting Griffin. Although Goth is dead and trapped in the Underworld, he can live again - if he steals the life of a living creature caught inside this terrible place. Who will find Griffin first? And who will survive to embark upon the perilous journey to discover the Tree, the only portal back to the living?

Kenneth Oppel, the author of the runaway young adult bestsellers Silverwing (which won the 2000 Hackmatack Award) and Sunwing (which was nominated for the 2001 Hackmatack Award), published his first novel for children at age 15. At 32, he has published 16 books in Canada, the US, the UK and Europe. His books include Dead Water Zone, The Live-Forever Machine, Follow That Star and a new children's picture book, Peg and the Whale. He is also an accomplished screenwriter. He has received countless awards, including the 1995 Air Canada Award for best Canadian writer under 30. Kenneth Oppel lives in Toronto with his wife and two children.

Thematic Links

• Bats
• Sound
• Afterlife, Underworld
• Comparative religion
• Myth, Folklore
• Love, loyalty, community

Suggested Activities

• A study of bats: natural history, folktales, social habits. How much does Kenneth Oppel invent; how much factual information does he use; what does he alter?
• The Afterlife: All religions and cultures have their own versions of an afterlife. What did the ancient Greeks think happened after dead? The Romans? The Maya? Christians? Muslims? Research any religious tradition to learn about life after death. What do you think happens after we die?
• Write a sequel to Firewing: what could happen next to Griffin and Luna and Shade?