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  • Kenneth OppelAuthor – Canada
  • Sean Kerns

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The kind of fantasies that I like to read and write often usually contain one fantastical assumption or object or phenomenon. And I like those kinds of books as opposed to a hard-out, sword-and-sorcery fantasy where the world’s simply teeming with magic.

K. Oppel

canadian writer Kenneth Oppel has for thirty years captured the imaginations of children and young adults across the world. Born in 1967 in British Columbia, Oppel’s first novel, Colin’s Fantastic Video Adventure (1985), was published before he finished secondary school, aged just seventeen. Having produced successful and engaging books ever since, Oppel is now a staple of Canada’s children’s literature scene and is renowned the world over.

Many of Oppel’s works fit the bildungsroman mold: Young protagonists are faced with challenges that lead them onto a journey of adventure, self-discovery, and eventual maturity. But it is his meticulous attention to detail that makes his work so unique; he seamlessly blends fantasy and reality to create believable worlds that have captured his readers’ imaginations for decades. His extensive research results in faithful social, cultural, and historical representations—from technological change (through the construction of the trans-continental Canadian Pacific Railroad in the nineteenth century) in The Boundless to the social concerns of 1970s Canada in Half Brother.

Like his primarily teen-aged audience, Oppel’s characters confront moral and ethical questions; their values and feelings are tested in the challenging situations they face, and—without exception, they learn—their choices have consequences. The protagonist in Oppel’s award-winning Silverwing series, which to date has sold over one million copies worldwide, is Shade, a young Silverwing bat whose decision to disobey the rules of his colony forces him to undertake a journey of epic proportions. The series of events and encounters Shade faces produces an action-packed, suspense-driven adventure that Oppel maintains throughout the series. His Airborn trilogy, which follows the journey of a cabin boy in an alternate reality where airships are the primary mode of transportation, is another career highlight. It includes his most famous work, Skybreaker, which made the New York Times bestseller list and was named Children’s Novel of the Year in 2005 by the London Times. Indeed, Oppel has won dozens of literary and children’s choice awards. To date, he has published twenty-eight novels, and his works have been translated into over twenty languages. Oppel lives in Toronto with his wife and three children.

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Silverwing. Toronto: HarperCollins, 1997. Print.
Airborn. Toronto: HarperCollins, 2004. Print.
Half Brother. Toronto: HarperCollins, 2010. Print.
This Dark Endeavour: the Apprenticeship of Victor Frankenstein. Toronto: HarperCollins, 2011. Print.
The Boundless. Toronto: HarperCollins, 2014. Print. [End Page 17]
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