Immagino che sia un libro per bambini. Ma anche se fosse, i bambini non sono mica scemi: si poteva osare qualcosa di più (ma mi sono fermato a pagina 87). ( )

‘Good light, Soren, Gylfie said
Good light, Soren and Gylfie, Twilight said
Good light, Twilight, Soren, and Gylfie both said together.’ (p. 183)

The first book of the series Guardian of Ga’Hoole, tells the adventures of Soren, a barn owl.

The Capture could be subdivided in three parts:
the first one tells about Soren and his family, living happily in a nest. The most important event is the birth of Eglantine, Soren’s sister.

The second part tells a dramatic event: Soren is pushed out of the nest by Kludd, his brother. Follows Soren’s capture by a patrol of the evil owls from the St. Aegolius Academy for Orphaned Owls.
Living in St. Aggie’s is terrible: most of the time is spent forgetting the past life, and every owl has to learn his new name: a number. A mystery surrounds St. Aggie: owls have to pick up tiny particles (flecks) so the Academy gain power and control over all owls’ world.
At St. Aegolius Academy Soren meets enemies and friends: Gylfie, a female elf owl (one of the smallest owl) befriend Soren and together they learn to fly.
‘... this is not humble, this is where owls belong - high near the wind, near the sky, close to the heartbeat of the night.’ (p. 117)

The third part tells about Soren’s and Gylfie’s escape from St. Aggie: flying toward nowhere they meet Twilight, a great grey owl and they also meet Digger, a burrowing owl.

The first and third part are the best ones of The Capture: at the beginning we know about owls’ world, and it is not strange for the readers to learn that they read the psalms.
When Soren, and Gylfie, become free from St. Aggie they fly toward some sad news about their parents, but also no one stop them to seek the truth about the legend of Ga’Hoole so to protect the world from the evil.

The second part reminds about other brainwashing’s camps ...

‘- But where is it you’re going? he asked
- To the Great Ga’Hoole Tree.
- What? said Digger, but before Twilight could answer, Streak (an eagle) broke in,
- I’ve heard of that place, but isn’t it just a story, a legend?
- To some it might be, Twilight said, and blinked at the eagle.
- But not to owls, thought Soren. To owls, he thought, it is a real place.’ (p. 215-6)

‘And, indeed, Soren knew still another true:
Legends were not only for the desperate.
Legends were for the brave.’ (p. 218)

Soren: Barn Owls (Tyto Alba), (Barbagianni): it is widely distributed in the world; it measures 10–18 inch in overall length, with a wingspan of 30–43 inch.

Twilight: Great Gray Owls (Strix nebulosa), (Allocco di Lapponia): they belong to the Wood Owls group; are residents of Canada and Alaska; It is the largest owl species with a wingspan of 5-foot.

Gylfie: Elf Owl (Micrathene whitneyi), (Civetta?): is the smallest owl, only 5.5-inch.

Digger: Burrowing Owls (Athene cunicularia), (Civetta delle tane): they nest in burrows.
( )

Soren nace en el bosque de Tyto, un reino tranquilo en el que habitan las lechuzas comunes. Pero el mal está al acecho en el mundo de las lechuzas, un mal que amenaza con hacer pedazos la paz de Tyto y cambiar el curso de la vida de Soren para siempre. Soren es capturado y trasladado a un desfiladero sombrío e inhóspito. Lo llaman un orfanato, pero la joven lechuza cree que es algo mucho peor. Él y su amigo Gylfie saben que la única escapatoria está arriba. Para huir, tendrán que hacer algo que no han hecho nunca: volar.

Soren is a young Barn Owl living with his parents and two siblings, his older brother Kludd and his younger sister Eglantine. There have been disturbing reports of owlets going missing recently, but it's not something Soren is particularly worried about...until his parents leave on a long hunting flight and Soren suddenly finds himself pushed out of his nest. He can't fly and is completely defenseless. Before anyone is able to help him, he's snatched away by an owl who takes him to St. Aggie's, an owl orphanage.

Soren knows that he isn't really an orphan, but none of the adults at St. Aggie's seem to care, and things get worse from there. Each owlet is referred to by a number rather than their real name, everyone is made to undergo something called a "sleep march," and questions are forbidden. Soren clings to his sense of self with the help of a new friend, an Elf Owl named Gylfie, and the two of them work together to find a way out of St. Aggie's and back to their families.

My eldest niece is into animal books right now. I know she's reading Erin Hunter's Warriors series. I don't know if she's discovered this series yet, but I figured I'd give them both a shot and see what they were like.

St. Aggie's was a weird and disturbing place. I don't know if Lasky based it off of anything in real life, but I found myself thinking of assimilation camps. The owlets were fed an inadequate diet of crickets, deprived of the ability to sleep properly, and subjected to "laughter therapy" or forced plucking if they didn't unquestioningly follow the rules. Most were prevented from ever becoming true adult owls. It was a lot darker than I expected.

Just a warning: several characters are killed in this, and their deaths have an emotional impact on the main characters. I appreciated that their deaths resulted in more than just a paragraph or two of sadness, although I imagine it could be tough for sensitive younger readers.

Lasky included several species of owls in this book, and their different traits and abilities added some nice variety. I don't know much about owls - their physical abilities seemed to be accurate, but I wondered about things like Mrs. Plithiver, a blind snake who served Soren's family, keeping their nest clean and free of maggots and insects (some googling indicates that this happens in real screech owl nests, although I'm still not sure about barn owls).

Overall, I thought this was decent, although I'm not sure yet whether I'll be continuing on - I'm interested to find out who's behind St. Aggie's and what their plans are, but I also have lots of other things on my TBR mountain calling my name.

Extras:

A map of this book's world and a black-and-white drawing of Soren being taken away from his family.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) ( )

Read the first three books with a friend when I was 12. For two reasons:

1. The movie was coming out during that time.

2. My friend love owls and I really enjoy reading these books with him. ( )