Guardians of Ga'Hoole

The official logo for Guardians of Ga'Hoole
Author	Kathryn Lasky
Original title	The Guardians of Ga'hoole: The Rise of a Legend
Illustrator	Richard Cowdrey
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre	Fantasy fiction
Publisher	Scholastic Corporation
Published	2003–2013
Media type	Print (Paperback and Hardback)
No. of books	31 (including spin-offs and companion books)

Guardians of Ga'Hoole is a fantasy book series written by Kathryn Lasky and published by Scholastic.^[1][2][3] The series contains a total of 16 books and although originally intended to conclude with the 2008 publication of The War of the Ember, a prequel, The Rise of a Legend, was published in 2013. Apart from the main series there are a few more books and spin-offs set in the same universe. The first three books of the series were adapted into the 2010 animated 3D film Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole, directed by Zack Snyder.^[4]

This series follows the adventures of Soren, a young barn owl, for the first six books, and follows Soren's nephew Nyroc, later renamed Coryn, for Books 7-8. Books 9-11 are prequels to the other books, telling the story of Hoole, the first king of the Great Ga'Hoole Tree. Books 12-15 continue the main storyline, through the reign of King Coryn. Book 16 is another prequel, this one telling the story of Ezylryb, Soren's mentor.

Soren, a young Barn Owl (Tyto alba), lives in a nest in a hollow of a fir tree with his parents Noctus and Marella and siblings Kludd and Eglantine, in the forest kingdom of Tyto. Soren, unable to fly, falls out of the nest to the forest floor, and is abducted by a patrol of owls from the St. Aegolius Academy for Orphaned Owls, or St. Aggie's, which is led by General Skench, a Great Horned Owl, and her lieutenant Spoorn, a Western Screech Owl. Soren and other snatched owlets are enslaved into tasks such as sorting eggs and pellets, for reasons they do not understand. Owls at St. Aggie's are "moon-blinked", a brainwashing technique caused by sleeping and walking under the full moon, endlessly repeating their true names to forget them and lose any sense of self and will.

Soren befriends Gylfie, a young Elf Owl from the desert kingdom of Kuneer. Together, under the guise of being moon-blinked, they plot both to learn the true purpose behind St. Aggie's and escape. Gylfie suspects that a Spotted Owl named Hortense is not moon-blinked. They befriend her, learning she is sneaking out stolen eggs to return them to their parents with the help of two eagles, Zan and Streak. Hortense is discovered by the Academy owls as she delivers another egg to Zan, and is thrown from a cliff to her apparent death during the ensuing fight. Soren and Gylfie also meet a partly moon-blinked Boreal Owl named Grimble, and plan to escape as he teaches them how to fly. On the night of the pair's planned escape, they are discovered by Skench; she kills Grimble, but Soren and Gylfie manage to escape by taking flight for the first time.

After escaping, Soren and Gylfie meet Twilight, an orphan Great Gray Owl who learned his survival instincts from the "Orphan School of Tough Learning", and go looking for their families. While Soren is unable to find his parents and siblings, he reunites with his former nest-maid Mrs. Plithiver, a western blind snake. She regretfully informs Soren that Kludd had shoved him out of the nest and later did the same thing to Eglantine, forcing Mrs. Plithiver to flee. The group travel to Kuneer and unsuccessfully search for Gylfie's family, but encounter Digger, a Burrowing Owl, who also lost his family to the St. Aggie's marauders. The group are attacked by Jatt and Jutt, two Long-eared Owls who serve as high-ranking officers for the Academy, but manage to kill them with help from Zan and Streak. The newly-formed band decide to search for a legendary order of warrior owls called the Guardians of Ga'Hoole, to warn them about the Academy.

Soren, Gylfie, Twilight and Digger, accompanied by Mrs. Plithiver, fly in search of the Great Ga'Hoole Tree, where the Guardians are said to live. They face numerous obstacles along their way, including an attack by crows, a fight with a bobcat, and an encounter with a family of puffins. After a lengthy search, the band finally find their way to the Great Tree, which is located on an island in the middle of the Sea of Hoolemere, and are welcomed by the Guardians. As they settle into life at the Great Tree, the band begin training as Guardians in selected classes called chaws, where young owls study in fields such as star navigation, tracking, search-and-rescue, colliering, and weather research. They also meet other young owls, such as Otulissa, a Spotted Owl, and Primrose, a Northern Pygmy Owl.

After completing their basic training, the band are selected for their official chaws. Soren is assigned to the colliering and weather chaws, along with Otulissa; Martin, a Northern Saw-whet Owl; and Ruby, a Short-eared Owl. The chaw's ryb, or teacher, is Ezylryb, an elderly Whiskered Screech Owl, who proves to be an excellent mentor despite his intimidating appearance and withdrawn demeanor. Soren is initially hesitant, but develops his skills under Ezylryb's guidance, participating in expeditions such as flying through a gale and harvesting burning coals from a forest fire.

Shortly after Soren's first colliering mission, the Guardians must go into action when hundreds of owlets are found abandoned in the middle of an uninhabited forest, an incident that becomes known as "the Great Downing". All of the owlets belong to the Barn Owl family; in addition, they all seem to be extremely confused, constantly babbling about the "purity of Tytos". Among the owlets, Twilight and Digger are shocked to discover Eglantine, Soren's lost sister. She is brought back to the Great Tree and eventually recovers from her ordeal, but she and the other rescued owlets have no memory of what had happened to them. In addition, Ezylryb mysteriously disappears in the aftermath of the incident, but Soren vows to find him.

Some time after the Great Downing, Ezylryb is still missing, so Soren and his friends decide to investigate. After narrowly surviving a flight through a hurricane during an outing with the weather chaw, Soren dreams of the scrooms, or spirits, of his parents, who warn him to "beware Metal Beak". Bubo, the blacksmith of the Great Tree, informs Soren that Metal Beak is actually a mysterious owl, who is believed to be one of the most evil owls in the world. After learning that a rogue Snowy Owl blacksmith in the forest of Silverveil may have more information, Soren and the band sneak away during a week-long festival to talk to the Smith. They discover that the Smith is actually the sister of the Great Tree's famous singer, Madame Plonk, and that she is also on friendly terms with Ezylryb and his nest-maid Octavia, a Kielian snake from the Northern Kingdoms. The band return to the Great Tree with their new information, although they are caught and punished for sneaking away without permission.

After investigating Ezylryb's living quarters and discovering a secret chamber, Soren and Gylfie are interrupted by Octavia, who reveals that Ezylryb was once known as Lyze of Kiel, a famous warrior from the Northern Kingdoms. Shortly thereafter, Eglantine begins to regain her lost memories, and recalls being imprisoned in an abandoned stone castle by Metal Beak and his followers, a mysterious group of Barn Owls called the Pure Ones. Soren, Gylfie, Twilight, Digger, Eglantine, and Otulissa, dubbed the "Chaw of Chaws", sneak away from the Great Tree again to search for the castle, hopeful that Ezylryb may be there.

After locating the castle, the Chaw discover that the Pure Ones possess knowledge of "Flecks", magnetic iron particles which can confuse and disable owls, which were also prized by the leadership of St. Aggie's. Using Otulissa's knowledge on the subject, they eventually find Ezylryb trapped inside a "Devil's Triangle", a disorienting magnetic field created by placing three bags of Flecks in a triangular formation, and manage to free him by burning all three bags to destroy the Flecks. However, it is revealed that Metal Beak and a group of Pure Ones had trapped Ezylryb, and a fight ensues. Martin and Ruby arrive in time to reinforce their friends, and the Chaw manage to fight off their attackers using burning branches. In the process, however, Soren is horrified when Metal Beak reveals himself to be Kludd, whose "metal beak" is a mask and artificial beak made of Mu metal, a soft alloy that negates the effect of Flecks. During their fight, Soren inadvertently covers Kludd's mask in burning embers; this causes it to partially melt, burning Kludd's face and forcing him to retreat. Ezylryb and the chaw return safely to the Great Tree and are met with a joyous reception. As daylight sets in, Ezylryb writes a poem reflecting on the impending war with the Pure Ones.

Immediately after his fight with Soren, a badly-burned Kludd crashes into a pond near the hollow of Simon, a Brown Fish Owl and a pilgrim from the Glauxian Brothers' Retreat in the Northern Kingdoms. Simon nurses Kludd back to health, but Kludd then murders him. As he leaves to regroup with the Pure Ones, he is observed by a nearly-invisible Spotted Owl named Mist.

At the Great Tree, Dewlap, the Burrowing Owl Ga'Hoolology ryb, declares the topic of Higher Magnetics and the book Fleckasia and Other Disorders of the Gizzard "spronk" (forbidden knowledge) despite its importance in understanding Flecks and their effect on owls. Soon after, the Chaw of Chaws are given a secret mission to infiltrate St. Aggie's Academy, as the Guardians' leaders believe that the Pure Ones are obtaining their Fleck supply from the Academy's large stores. Ezylryb gives Otulissa the banned book: Dewlap finds her reading it and sentences her to a punishment. Otulissa initially complies, but eventually flies off to join the Chaw on their mission; frustrated, Dewlap flings the book into the sea. After reaching St. Aggie's under assumed identities, the Chaw are put through moon-blinking sessions, but each of them has memorized a part of the Ga'Hoolian legends in order to resist. Soon, they discover Barn Owls smuggling Flecks out of the library where the particles are stored, and using some of them to influence the Barn Owl eggs that the St. Aggie's patrols have been stealing. Otulissa gains the trust of St. Aggie's General Skench by giving her misinformation about Higher Magnetics, and learns that some of the Barn Owl infiltrators are actually double-agents for St. Aggie's.

Meanwhile, at the Pure Ones' castle, the Rogue Smith of Silverveil is hired to make battle claws for the Pure Ones' army; after deducing that they are planning an attack on the Great Tree, she goes to tell Mist. At St. Aggie's, the Chaw plan to escape by inciting a fight between the workers and the Barn Owl spies. They all manage to escape in the resulting commotion, but Soren is wounded as they escape and falls gravely ill. Fortunately, he is saved when Mist arrives with Zan, Streak, and a flying snake named Slynella, whose venom heals him. Mist reveals herself as Hortense, having survived her fall from the cliff, and warns the Chaw of the Pure Ones' impending attack. The Chaw returns to the Great Tree to alert the Guardians, who prepare for war.

The Pure Ones, led by Kludd and his mate Nyra, launch their attack on the Island of Hoole. After several clashes and a lengthy siege, Soren, his friends, and Ezylryb devise a plan to turn the tables by digging a tunnel from the Great Tree to the other side of the island, allowing the Guardians to attack the Pure Ones from behind in a pincer movement. This plan is a success; the siege is broken in a decisive battle, and the Pure Ones retreat from the island. During the battle, however, Strix Struma, Otulissa's mentor, is killed by Nyra, leaving Otulissa devastated, while it is revealed that Dewlap had betrayed the Guardians by leaking information to the Pure Ones during the siege. In the aftermath of the battle, Soren realizes that he possesses an ability known as starsight, which allows him to see glimpses of the future in his dreams.

Ginger, a Barn Owl and a former Pure One taken in by the Guardians after she was wounded in the Battle of the Siege, has become friends with Eglantine and Primrose, but she still displays some suspicious behavior (such as deliberately torturing a mouse), and seems to be driving a wedge between Eglantine and her other friends. Meanwhile, Eglantine begins having strange, vivid dreams of her mother, Marella, making a new nest in the region known as The Beaks. Despite having been informed by Soren of his previous encounter with their parents' spirits, Eglantine becomes convinced that her dreams are real, and that her mother must still be alive. Meanwhile, Soren and the band discover a page from the lost Fleckasia book that Dewlap had confiscated from Otulissa and thrown into the sea. Soren returns the page to Otulissa, who uses it, with help from Ezylryb, to deduce that fleck exposure can lead to a condition called "shattering", which can cause owls to become confused, lose their emotions, and even experience delusions.

Eglantine and Ginger eventually travel to The Beaks, where they find the nest from Eglantine's dreams, occupied by a female Barn Owl who Eglantine believes to be Marella; however, it is actually Nyra, Kludd's mate. Convinced that Nyra is Marella, Eglantine secretly begins making regular trips to The Beaks to visit her, and is even influenced into bringing her papers about Flecks from the Great Tree's library. One night, Primrose sees Eglantine leaving and follows her to The Beaks, but is captured by the Pure Ones. They force her to sleep in a nest full of Flecks, but she manages to avoid being shattered by using a piece of amber to remove the Flecks from her nest.

Back at the Great Tree, Digger has become suspicious of Eglantine's odd behavior, and discovers that Ginger has secretly been slipping Flecks into Eglantine's nest. The band deduce that Eglantine has been shattered, and the Guardians launch a mission to find her and Primrose. Meanwhile, Eglantine finally breaks free of the shattering when she discovers that Nyra has captured Primrose, but she is also captured by Nyra, Ginger, and the Pure Ones. A forest fire breaks out, forcing the Pure Ones to abandon Nyra's nest in order to protect her and Kludd's first egg, referred to as "the Sacred Orb". Eglantine and Primrose steal the egg and flee into the fire, pursued by Nyra's forces. The Guardians pick up their trail and, despite being heavily outnumbered by the Pure Ones, Ezylryb devises an ingenious strategy to trick the enemy into thinking that the Guardians have far more soldiers at their disposal. During the resulting clash, Eglantine, still in her confused state, falls into a trance and comes dangerously close to being burned alive; she manages to recover and escapes, but is forced to drop the egg in the process, destroying it.

In the aftermath, the Guardians return to the Great Tree, but they soon receive bad news when word arrives that Kludd and the rest of the Pure Ones have invaded and conquered the canyonlands of St. Aggie's, giving them control over the Academy's vast supply of Flecks. As a result, the Chaw of Chaws are given a special mission by Ezylryb and the rest of the Guardians' parliament: to travel to the Northern Kingdoms, both to deliver the exiled Dewlap to the Retreat of the Glauxian Sisters, and to acquire more knowledge, weapons, and allies for the Guardians, in preparation for a final assault against the Pure Ones.

After officially becoming Guardians, the Chaw of Chaws depart for the Northern Kingdoms, Ezylryb's hatching place, to seek help for their war against the Pure Ones. Gylfie and Otulissa deliver Dewlap to the Glauxian Sisters, and then travel to the Glauxian Brothers to research Flecks in their extensive library. In the process, Otulissa develops a crush on Cleve, a male Spotted Owl of royal descent who is studying medicine at the library, while Gylfie discovers that Ifghar, Ezylryb's traitorous younger brother, and his Kielian snake attendant Gragg, are also living at the Brothers' retreat to receive care in their old age. After learning of the Guardians' mission, Gragg and Ifghar begin plotting to exact revenge on Ezylryb by informing the Pure Ones of their plans, and recruit a band of pirate owls to help them.

Meanwhile, Martin and Ruby seek out a veteran Kielian snake named Hoke to help in recruiting troops to aid the Guardians, while Soren, Eglantine, Twilight and Digger go in search of another of Ezylryb's old allies, a Snowy Owl named Moss. With help from Svall, a polar bear, they are successful, but Moss cannot promise aid from the Northern Kingdoms' Kielian League until their leaders can discuss the proposal. After receiving training and a supply of ice weapons from Moss and his allies, the Chaw prepare to return to the Great Tree, but they are attacked by the pirates and Gylfie is abducted. The others are forced to return home without her, while Gylfie is questioned by Ifghar and Gragg. She refuses to give them any information, and is eventually rescued by Twilla, a Short-eared Owl who had tended to Ifghar at the Glauxian Brothers' retreat. Instead of returning to the Great Tree, Gylfie decides that she must continue trying to convince the Kielian League's leaders to support the Guardians.

Having returned to the Great Tree, the rest of the Chaw join the other Guardians in preparing for their invasion of the canyonlands, where the Pure Ones have established their new headquarters in the former stronghold of St. Aggie's Academy. Soren aids in covert missions to neutralize the Pure Ones' new defenses of Fleck emplacements, in preparation for the attack. Finally, the Guardians launch their invasion, sparking a massive battle in the canyonlands. There are many casualties on both sides, but the Guardians gain the upper hand when Gylfie arrives with the Frost Beak and Glauxspeed Divisions from the Northern Kingdoms, having been successful in her attempts to convince them to join the fight. As the battle rages, Soren finally comes face-to-face with Kludd once more, and they engage in a final duel. Kludd wounds Gylfie, but Twilight intervenes and kills Kludd. The Pure Ones are defeated, and the Guardians and their allies are victorious.

In the aftermath of the battle, Nyra watches over her and Kludd's second egg, which hatches into their son, Nyroc. Meanwhile, the Guardians and the Northern Kingdom forces return to the Great Tree, where they celebrate their victory and mourn their losses. Soren and Eglantine are briefly reunited with the spirits of their parents, whose unfinished business has been fulfilled with Kludd's death, allowing them to pass on and find peace.

After Kludd's death, a vengeful Nyra raises their only hatchling, Nyroc, to take his place, and teaches him to hate Soren, blaming him for Kludd's death. Despite being Kludd's heir, Nyroc has only one real friend among the Pure Ones: a Greater Sooty Owl named Dustytuft, although Nyroc calls him by his old name, Phillip. During their Final Ceremony for Kludd, which entails the burning of his bones, the rogue smith Gwyndor, a Masked Owl, discovers that Nyroc has firesight, the ability to see visions in fire. Gwyndor later visits the Rogue Smith of Silverveil to discuss the situation, and is horrified when she warns him that Nyroc's initiation into the Pure Ones, the "Special" or "Tupsi" ceremony, will require Nyroc to commit a cold-blooded murder, just as Kludd attempted to do when he tried to kill Soren as an owlet. Hoping to help Nyroc escape from the Pure Ones, Gwyndor returns and shows him another fire, in which Nyroc sees visions of the past atrocities committed by Kludd and Nyra, as well as the revelation that Twilight, not Soren, killed Kludd. Horrified, Nyroc tries to flee the canyonlands with Phillip, but they are tracked down and captured by the Pure Ones with help from Doc Finebeak, a Snowy Owl tracker. Nyra reveals that Phillip is Nyroc's intended victim for his Special ceremony, but when Nyroc refuses to kill Phillip, Nyra slashes Nyroc's face and kills Phillip herself. Horrified, Nyroc declares his hatred of her and flees.

Now forced to survive on his own, Nyroc finds himself haunted by Kludd's vengeful spirit. He also faces an additional challenge, as he now has a scar on his face similar to Nyra's, causing other owls to fear him on sight. Living in hiding, he listens to the conversations of other owl families, and learns some of the Ga'Hoolian legends, particularly those concerning the first colliers and the mysterious Ember of Hoole, a special coal imbued with powerful magic, which he had also seen in Gwyndor's fire. Eventually, he meets a strange rabbit with a similar ability to his own, who can see visions in spiderwebs. The rabbit advises Nyroc to go to the place that his firesight visions showed him: Beyond the Beyond, the land where the first colliers came from. After flying through a forest fire and seeing visions of Otulissa, Nyroc encounters the spirit of Strix Struma, who advises him that Otulissa has a role to play in his future. At the Great Tree, Otulissa is also visited by Strix Struma's spirit, who convinces her to travel to Beyond the Beyond as well. Meanwhile, Nyroc is confronted by Kludd's spirit again, but defies him, vowing never to return to the Pure Ones and asserting his own free will.

Having freed himself from Kludd's haunting spirit, Nyroc casts off his old name and life. He is then found by two flying snakes, Slynella and Stingyll, and is brought to Mist, who teaches him to read, write, and tells him stories of Hoole and the wolves of the Beyond. He eventually renames himself Coryn, a reversal of Nyroc, and finally decides to travel to Beyond the Beyond. On his way there, he hears that a Burrowing Owl family has had their egg stolen by the Pure Ones, and decides to help. Disguising himself as his mother's scroom, he successfully rescues the egg and returns it to its family; in return, they name the hatchling after him.

After arriving in Beyond the Beyond, Coryn spends some time observing the clans of dire wolves who live there. After one wolf hunt by the MacDuncan clan, he feeds on a moose carcass alongside a grizzly bear, and allows the wolves to join only if they allow the deformed "gnaw wolf" Hamish, the lowest-ranking member of their clan, to eat first. Coryn and Hamish become friends after this incident, and Coryn learns from Hamish about the Sacred Watch, a special order of wolves that guards the Beyond's volcanoes, where the Ember of Hoole is hidden. Only deformed wolves can do so, and are promised rebirth into a new life in exchange for their life of service.

Elsewhere, rumors spread of Nyra's death, which she uses to her advantage. She murders the Rogue Smith of Silverveil to steal her identity, and uses the smith's art to obtain additional bargaining chips from a gullible magpie. She then flies to the Beyond to try to recruit dire wolves for her army, and strikes a deal with a jealous clan of wolves known as the MacHeaths who want the ember for themselves, maiming their own pups in the hope they will be chosen to join the Watch. However, one of the MacHeaths, a she-wolf named Gyllbane, is suspicious of Nyra and leaves the clan to warn Coryn. Meanwhile, Otulissa also flies to the Beyond, following the guidance of Strix Struma's spirit. She crosses paths with Gwyndor, and they both eventually find Coryn.

Hamish joins the Sacred Watch, while Otulissa teaches Coryn how to master the skill of colliering. Coryn uses his firesight to see his mother is near, and has more visions of the Ember of Hoole. With guidance from Strix Struma's spirit and from Gyllbane, he finally embraces his destiny and dives into one of the volcanoes to retrieve the Ember, proving himself to be the rightful heir to the Great Tree. Nyra attacks Coryn in an attempt to seize the Ember, but Hamish, Gyllbane, Doc Finebeak, Nyra's former lieutenant Uglamore, and many other owls and wolves rally to protect him. Nyra is nearly caught by a rabid wolf, which kills Uglamore, but she manages to escape. The crippled wolves of the Watch all receive their wish of new life, choosing to remain alive as wolves but with healed bodies.

After bidding farewell to Hamish and Gyllbane, Coryn flies with Otulissa and Gwyndor to the Great Tree, where he meets Soren and Eglantine. Otulissa bids farewell to Strix Struma's spirit, and Coryn is crowned as the new king of Ga'Hoole.

On his deathbed, Ezylryb tells Coryn and Soren to read three ancient books of legends that were hidden in his hollow. The first of them tells the story of Grank the First Collier, how he met the dire wolf Fengo, and how he found the Ember of Hoole.

One thousand years earlier, Grank, a Spotted Owl, is born in the Northern Kingdoms, or N'yrthghar, during a chaotic time of conflict and war. He is a close friend to the kingdom's young rulers, King H'rath and Queen Siv, who are also Spotted Owls. Grank possesses the ability of firesight, and eventually travels to Beyond the Beyond, where he befriends Fengo, the chieftain of the dire wolves, who also has firesight and helps him to master his abilities. Over several years, Grank returns to the Beyond numerous times, and develops the skills that lead him to become the first collier. Eventually, he even manages to retrieve the Ember of Hoole from within one of the volcanoes. However, Grank's firesight is amplified dramatically by the Ember's power, and becomes so overwhelming that it effectively paralyzes him for some time.

Meanwhile, H'rath and Siv's kingdom is threatened by hagsfiends, monstrous owl/crow-like birds who have mastered evil magic. Lord Arrin, a traitorous owl who is allied with the hagsfiends, begins murdering H'rath's soldiers and prepares his own army to launch an invasion. Grank witnesses all of this through his firesight visions, but is locked in such a deep trance that he does not go to help until Fengo finally intervenes, breaking the trance and convincing him to return the Ember to the volcano. This clears Grank's mind, and he flies back to the N'yrthghar to help, but he is too late: H'rath has been killed in battle by Lord Arrin and one of his allies, the hagsfiend Penryck, while Siv flees with her and H'rath's only egg. Siv and Myrrthe, her faithful servant, seek shelter at the retreat of the Glauxian Sisters, but the owls there have been placed under a mind-controlling spell by hagsfiends, forcing the pair to flee. Grank arrives at the Sisters' retreat shortly thereafter, and breaks the spell by using an ice splinter to pierce the gizzard of their superior, thus purging them all of the hagsfiends' magic.

Grank reunites with Siv and Myrrthe in the hidden Ice Cliff Palace. Siv explains that Lord Arrin and the hagsfiends desire her egg, which Grank senses possesses powerful magic. To keep it safe, she gives the egg to Grank, who promises to care for her unborn son. Lord Arrin's hagsfiends arrive, and Siv draws them away while Grank escapes with the egg. He lands on a remote island, where he meets a young Great Horned Owl named Theo, who becomes his apprentice and the first blacksmith. Meanwhile, Siv and Myrrthe seek shelter with a polar bear named Svenka, but the hagsfiends eventually catch up to them and kill Myrrthe. While Siv is confronted by Lord Arrin and his hagsfiends, her egg hatches in the care of Grank and Theo, and her son Hoole, the first king of Ga'Hoole, is born.

In the present, Coryn comes to a dreadful realization, and admits to Soren that he believes Nyra may actually be a hagsfiend.

In the present, Gylfie, Twilight, Digger and Otulissa join Soren and Coryn in reading the legends. The second book of legends describes the hatching and the early life of Hoole.

Hoole grows up with Grank, Theo, and his best friend, a young pygmy owl named Phineas. When Hoole and Siv meet for the first time, a hagsfiend attack forces them to separate, but Hoole realizes Siv is his mother from his firesight. The four travel to Beyond the Beyond, where the disgruntled wolf chieftain Dunleavy MacHeath leaves to betray Hoole to Lord Arrin. Meanwhile, the arch-hagsfiend Kreeth asks Lord Arrin's lieutenants, a hagsfiend named Ygryk and her owl mate Pleek, to find Hoole so she can use him to make hagsfiends immune to saltwater (they have no oil in their feathers to protect them). MacHeath is later killed by his eldest mate, who grew tired of his abuse and left his clan to form her own, and Hoole retrieves the Ember of Hoole during a battle which claims the life of Siv.

In the present, Coryn theorizes that a "rip" in the fabric of the owl universe initially allowed magic to infect the hagsfiends, and that the Ember's return may allow the hagsfiends' evil magic to return as well.

This book tells of Hoole's early days as king.

Back in the present, once the Ember of Hoole has been placed in the Tree, the Tree falls under a perpetual spell of golden-ness (which normally only happens in summer). The owls fall into a much more insidious fascination with the Ember and begin to worship it (to the chagrin of sensible owls like Otulissa and Bubo, the tree's blacksmith), constantly making up more and more ridiculous rituals for its adoration (such as flying around it and dipping their wingtips in its ashes). This culminates in a prison hollow being built in the Tree, which escapes Otulissa's knowledge until she is arrested for hiding a precious teacup Madame Plonk asked her to keep. Meanwhile, Coryn and the Band seek 'The Book of Kreeth', a book of magic practiced by an ancient arch-hagsfiend. A powerful sect of evil wolves known as 'vyrrwolves' impede their quest. However, the book is eventually recovered by a maimed pup called Cody, who dies in the attempt. During a battle with the Pure Ones, Coryn feels a strange power overcome him. At the same moment, the ember's glow dims at the moment Primrose performs the ceremony of removing the ashes, leading to her arrest on a false charge of blasphemy. When the Band return, they are horrified at the display and immediately rip down the trappings (which Gylfie notes look like a church). The ember is thrown into a pile of 'bonk' embers kept by Bubo.

Otulissa learns from Bess, the Knower, that there is a sixth kingdom in the world of owls. This discovery would mean much to owlkind. She rushes off to tell the Band about this new kingdom, which they come to know that it is known as Jouzhenkyn, or the Middle Kingdom. After they read Bess' letter, they all decide they should tell no one of this discovery yet except Coryn, their king. Soren, Gylfie, Twilight, Digger, and Otulissa, go to Coryn's hollow and tell him of this news. Coryn grows excited when the Band tells him that they get to go to the Palace of Mists (Bess' secret location) first, a place very few owls know about, and even fewer have gone there. Soren's elderly nest-maid snake pleads the Band to let her travel with them, and they agree, so The Band, Otulissa, Coryn and Mrs. Plithiver leave the tree without notice to go to the Palace of Mists. While they are gone, Pelli, Soren's mate, is shocked to find Bell go missing after a weather chawlet practice. Eglantine and Primrose, the aunt and godmother for the three B's, respectively, search for her for many nights, but they are unsuccessful in their search. At the Palace of Mists, Bess is relieved to find the Band there, but she is surprised to find Coryn there too, as she is not fond of much company and enjoys her solitude. For a few nights, the Band plus Otulissa and Coryn search the documents for any information for how to get to the Middle Kingdom, and what the place is like, and Otulissa also becomes quite fluent in the native language, Jouzhen. After finding a weather map that shows how to get across the Unnamed Sea (Sea of Vastness), they bid farewell to Bess and take off with very little supplies as a "river of wind" will carry them across the tomorrow line. Along the way, they find frightening carcasses of dead birds caught in tornadoes which remind them to be cautious. When they find a qui line, a piece of red ribbon, they follow it and the night suddenly becomes the morning. They swiftly make their way to the Middle Kingdom, where a blue Long-eared owl named Tengshu greets them. Meanwhile, Bell is being tended to by another blue owl from the Middle Kingdom, an escaped dragon owl called Orlando, but he tells Bell to call him Striga and lies about his origins. The Striga is being watched by some Pure Ones, who capture both Bell and Striga and take them to the Desert of Kuneer. There, with the help of a herbalist, they escape to the great tree and tell Doc Finebeak to get ready for an ambush in the Middle Kingdom, led by Nyra. In the Middle Kingdom, the Band and the others get word of the ambush plan, so they learn the way of Danyar, noble gentleness. They ultimately defeat Nyra and the Striga kills by spilling blood, against the way of Danyar, but since he saved Bell, the Guardians are indebted to him, so they take him back to the great tree where the Band and Coryn are welcomed back to the tree as heroes.

The Striga, a mysterious blue owl from the Middle Kingdom, gains control over young Coryn's mind. And then the unthinkable happens. The Band is banished from the Great Ga'Hoole Tree. The Striga institutes a harsh new regime that will not stop until learning itself- the very foundation of the tree- becomes suspect and books are burnt. Somehow the Band must open Coryn's eyes to the Striga's influence.

Dumpy, a puffin, discovers Nyra and the Striga working together in an ice cave to bring back the Hagsfiends. Scared, he tries to inform someone of this conspiracy but cannot, as all the other puffins he knows are as stupid as a rock. He then seeks out a polar bear known as Sveep and blurts out everything he saw. Sveep travels to Namara, the leader of the MacNamara clan of the Wolves of the Beyond, and informs her of what Dumpy had said. Namara then howls to the other clans about the grave danger, and all the wolf clans of the Beyond participate to relay this message to the rest of the kingdoms. Gwyndor, father of the Rogue Smith Gwynneth and one himself, hears the relay and flies to the Great Ga'Hoole Tree to inform them of this imminent danger to the Hoolian world. Meanwhile, in the Palace of the Mists, Bess is about to sleep when a dying Boreal Owl comes flying to the hidden scholarly retreat. Bess attends to him. The owl whispers that he has been poisoned and that he wants to be sung to Glaumora. Without questioning him, she sings to him, then retreats to the maparium to sleep. Just as she is about to doze off, she hears a loud bang and peers out to see the supposedly 'dying' owl, now wearing deadly battle claws, obviously searching for the hidden Ember of Hoole. Bess, a pacifist, has to kill him to defend herself. She then flies to the Great Tree and reports what had happened. Soren, Coryn, the Band and Otulissa plan an extraction for the ember. They devise a plan where a few skilled owls from the tree take botkins to the Palace of Mists and Bess, her eyes closed, drops the ember into one of them. The fliers take different routes, not knowing which botkin the ember is in, and are tracked in the high cloud cover by the band. Tracking the Barn Owl Wensel from the cloud cover, Soren, using his extremely elusive auditory skills as a Barn Owl, then finds out that Wensel was about half a league off from his course, obviously thinking his botkin was the one with the ember. Soren also devises that he is flying towards the entrance of St. Aggies Academy. Wensel, Soren and Gylfie are then cornered by three owls flying straight towards them, sent by Nyra, but two Great Grays fight off the group, which includes Tarn, a Burrowing Owl working for the Pure Ones. In the Middle Kingdom, an alert page discovers a chamber littered with plucked feathers of the Blue Owls and realises that some owls of the Panqua Palace are defecting from the Middle Kingdom, learning to fly by plucking their extremely long tail-feathers. She reports this to the H'ryth on the Mountain of Time, knowing that the Panqua Court would not pay her any heed. Meanwhile, Coryn, back at the tree, dispatches Otulissa and Cleve to the location provided by Dumpy, and Tengshu to the Middle Kingdom to ask the H'ryth for sanctuary to the Ember of Hoole. Otulissa and Cleve find a great massacre undertaken by the Blue Owls working with Nyra and the Striga. Another band of Haggish owls working with the Striga arrive at the point, and with Otulissa no match for them, Cleve surprisingly reveals his Danyar learning and immediately kills the Hagsfiend-like owls. Coryn and nest-maid Olivia travel to the Northern Kingdom to recruit other animals. The H'ryth, however, does not allow the ember to be kept in the Middle Kingdoms as he believes it will deceive Theo's teachings. Coryn decides to use the ember as bait for the Pure Ones and lure them to they beyond, where in the final battle he will later drop the ember in the Sacred Ring of Volcanoes and fight the Striga and Nyra with Soren at his side.

A prequel telling Ezylryb's backstory. In the time of Ezylryb's hatching, the Northern Kingdoms were torn apart by war, which had already killed his older brother and taken one of his mother's eyes. While still young, Lyze becomes jealous of a young snowy owl named Moss, due to him making milestones before Lyze, but attends a party in Moss's hollow and is shocked to discover he is shy. The two become fast friends and later meet Thora, who would later become the rogue smith of Silverveil, but who was then a runaway who could not stand her stepmother and wants to become the first female smith in the Northern Kingdoms. When Lyze is taken to observe the Kielian snakes, he befriends one named Hoke. Later, when observing the ice harvesters, he watches enemy owls engage them in battle. Lyze, Moss, and Thora become cadets, their early days punctuated by a traitorous cadet kidnapping Orf, a famous blacksmith, and their rescue of him. Lyze later meets a spirited female cadet named Lillium (Lil). Once allowed to go home, Lyze witnesses the hatching of his sister, Lysa, and instantly takes to her. However, she dies in a forest fire and their next sibling, Ifghar, does not captivate Lyze and often teases him. While at the academy, Lyze develops the idea of flying with Kielian snakes, using snow leopards on the ground, and using a special launcher to shoot burning metal spikes, though they abandon this last idea when they accidentally shoot a snow leopard. The war is hard-won, with Lil's death and Lyze breaking one of his talons, which leads to him biting it off, and one eye damaged so that it squints, leading to his distinctive appearance in the earlier books.

1. The Capture (June 1, 2003)
2. The Journey (September 1, 2003)
3. The Rescue (January 1, 2004)
4. The Siege (May 1, 2004)
5. The Shattering (August 1, 2004)
6. The Burning (November 1, 2004)
7. The Hatchling (June 1, 2005)
8. The Outcast (September 1, 2005)
9. The First Collier (April 1, 2006)
10. The Coming of Hoole (July 1, 2006)
11. To Be a King (October 1, 2006)
12. The Golden Tree (March 1, 2007)
13. The River of Wind (July 1, 2007)
14. Exile (February 1, 2008)
15. The War of the Ember (November 1, 2008)
16. The Rise of a Legend (2013)^[5][6][7]

1. The First Collier (2006)
2. The Coming of Hoole (2006)
3. To Be a King (2006)

The legends are a part of the Band's experiences. A spin-off series of three books were planned, titled Legends of Ga’Hoole.^[8] However, the books were not published as a new spin-off series; instead the books were moved to the original Guardians of Ga'Hoole series, with the titles unchanged. They were numbered as books 9, 10, and 11 of the series. The advance copy editions show the subtitle on the covers, although the final editions were not released with this feature. A prologue and an epilogue were added to each book—in which Ezylryb instructs the Band to read the Legends hidden in a secret room before dying in his hollow—so as to tie the books together with the main series. The reading of the Legends later becomes important, as they play a crucial part in Soren's mentality in The Golden Tree (the first book released right after the three Legends, which resumes the adventures of Soren and the Band).

The three books—The First Collier, The Coming of Hoole, and To Be a King—are about the legendary young king Hoole the spotted owl, and his mentor (the first collier) Grank the older spotted owl (an old friend of Hoole's parents), along with the pacifist Theo the great horned owl, the first owl blacksmith. Grank was the first to find the Ember of Hoole, and King Hoole was the first to find the Great Ga'Hoole Tree. Hoole came under the protection of Grank because his mother, Queen Siv, was a close childhood friend of Grank's.^[9] Hoole also works to stop the tyranny of these demonic birds of prey called Hagsfiends (resembling a haggish-looking cross between owls and crows).

Two guidebooks were released to give readers more insight into the world of Hoole. They are narrated by Otulissa.

1. A Guide Book to the Great Tree (2007) (written during events between The River of Wind and Exile)
2. Lost Tales of Ga'Hoole (2010) (written during events between The War of the Ember and Lone Wolf)

Wolves of the Beyond is a spin-off series that tells the story of the "dire wolf" Faolan, his life and events in and around the territory known as the Beyond. Some returning characters from the original series include Gwynneth, the daughter of the renowned rogue smith Gwyndor (an Australian masked owl), as a main character, as well as Hamish, friend of King Coryn, clan leader Duncan MacDuncan of the dire wolves, and Soren. Legends and series history are frequently mentioned, including the stories of the ending battle of the first series, Guardians of Ga'hoole.

This sequel of Guardians of Ga'hoole tells the story of Faolan, a dire wolf abandoned at birth because of a deformed paw, in accordance with wolf law. He is saved from death by a female grizzly bear known as Thunderheart, who had just lost her most recent cub to cougars. She teaches him to use his misshapen footpaw so that it cannot be regarded as a weakness, but a unique strength. The young wolf is reared by Thunderheart for the first year of his life, until they become separated in an earthquake. While searching for his foster mother (or "second Milk Giver"), he meets Gywnneth for the first time, who convinces him that despite the hardships he will face, he must return to the other wolves and join a clan. Faolan is not well-received, and is often regarded with suspicion and fear because of his bearish ways and an odd marking on his deformed paw, a spiral, that further sets him apart from his fellows. He begins clan life in the lowliest possible position, a gnaw wolf, and is subjected to verbal and physical abuse, along with minimal shares of food. He befriends fellow gnaw wolves Edme and the Whistler, but his superior carving skills set him against Heep, a tailless gnaw wolf with a thirst for power. Faolan eventually earns a place as a Watch wolf of the Ring of Sacred Volcanos, where special dire wolves guard the Ember of Hoole (the sacred coal that determines the ruler of owls), along with Edme. Faolan eventually meets his wolf mother and discovers he has two sisters who were not abandoned, Mhairie and Dearlea. A year later, a neverending winter ushers in famine, and many wolves are driven mad by starvation, forsaking their clan history and sense of self under the thrall of a death cult that offers to speed them to the Cave of Souls (heaven). To further decimate the failing wolf population, both the Beyond and much of the Owl Kingdoms are mostly destroyed by a cataclysmic earthquake, flattening the Ring of Sacred Volcanoes, and ending the service of the Watch Wolves, whose natural deformities are miraculously healed. Guided by the presence of a spirit connected to his spiral mark, Faolan leads his friends Edme, the Whistler, two grizzly bear brother cubs named Toby and Burney, a mother wolf named Caila and her pup Abban, an abandoned wolf pup named Myrrglosch, former Watch wolf Banja and her new pup Maudie, and two mated bald eagles named Eelon and Zanouche (the latter is the great-great-great-granddaughter of Streak and Zan) out of the Beyond. The travelers are helped along their way by some common puffins, narwhals, and banded woolly bears across a massive ice bridge over the sea, to a land called the Distant Blue to begin a new life. At the same time, they are being pursued by an evil rout of rogue dire wolves (or outclanners) led by the evil yellow dire wolf Heep. Faolan and Edme also discover that they are reincarnations of two great dire wolves from ancient times, lovers Fengo and Stormfast. Faolan finds that he, alongside Fengo, is a reincarnation of a heroic grizzly bear named Eo and a female snowy owl gadfeather named Fionula, an old friend of Madame Brunwella Plonk. After a series of bloody battles with Heep, the travelers vanquish the outclanners and reach the Distant Blue, where the weather is fair and wildlife is plentiful. A passing horse welcomes Faolan, the "star wolf," back to the land.

1. Lone Wolf (2011)
2. Shadow Wolf (2011)
3. Watch Wolf (2012)
4. Frost Wolf (2012)
5. Spirit Wolf (2013)
6. Star Wolf (2014)^[10][11]

This series has a minor connection to Guardians of Ga'Hoole and Wolves of the Beyond as a standalone prequel and a historical fiction. Set during the Age of Discovery (specifically the early 1520s), it is a trilogy about a group of domestic horses who escape a human Spanish galleon leaving Cuba, led by a young filly named Estrella, who become feral. The herd must fight to stay alive in the new land of North America and seek out a new home of sweet-smelling grass that only Estrella herself can smell, where their ancestors evolutionarily originated, a valley somewhere along the western side of the Rocky Mountains called the Valley of the Dawn. Estrella is orphaned when her mother Perlina is devoured by a great white shark after being thrown off the ship (thrown overboard to make room for gold by the command of Hernán Cortés, who the horses call the Seeker) in the Caribbean Sea. Following the North Star, they travel far and wide up through the southern part of the continent - finding Chichen Itza in the Yucatan Peninsula, Tenochtitlan on Lake Texcoco in the Valley of Mexico (witnessing La Noche Triste), the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt pine-oak forests of migrating monarch butterflies, and even abandoned Puebloan cliff dwellings. They become known as the First Herd. They are later joined by an orphaned 12-year-old Native American human boy named Tijo (who learns how to speak to equines), some escaped mules and donkeys, a female bald eagle named Tenyak, a female mason bee named Grace, and a young male nameless coyote who later names himself Hope. Hope is the son of an evil coyote trickster, sometimes called First Angry, who often antagonizes the herd, but Hope is not sinister like his father. During their journey, they attempt to avoid and defeat a greedy and arrogant conquistador human going by the pseudonym El Miedo (his Christian name is Ignatio de Cristobal), a competitor of Cortes, briefly allied with an egotistical Andalusian stallion named Pegasus (Pego for short). In the second book, Star Rise, it is referenced that this series takes place long before Guardians of Ga'hoole for there is an oracular barn owl (a species the natives call the omo owl) featured that mentions to Tijo that things called Ga' and Hoole have not happened yet. (Guardians of Ga'hoole takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where humans are extinct, the geography changed, and certain new species evolved.) Also, just before the prologue of the same book, there is a quote from To Be a King. At the end of the third book, Wild Blood, when the crowd of animals finally reaches the legendary Valley of the Dawn, after being led the whole time by the spirits of an Eohippus, a human girl called First Girl, and Tijo's deceased wise stepmother Haru of the Burnt River Clan People, a connection is established to the ending of the sixth book in Wolves of the Beyond: Star Wolf, where Faolan, now back in his kind's (the dire wolves) original homeland, tentatively called the Distant Blue, with his team of fellow dire wolves and other animals, finds a narrow green valley inhabited by American bison and horses. One of these horses, a creamy white individual with a face scarred from a wildfire (making the face furless and "the skin crinkled up in ugly ridges"), is stationed on a promontory just ahead of Faolan, and using the memories of his past life—the legendary ancient dire wolf named Fengo who led the dire wolves on a similar quest—he discovers that this horse also has reincarnated memories of a past life of its own, as the equine recalls Fengo from the past, and acknowledges the ancient wolf is now reincarnated as Faolan.

1. The Escape (2014)
2. Star Rise (2015)
3. Wild Blood (2016)

This series is set during a time in the main series of Guardians of Ga'Hoole. Set in a faraway northern Arctic land north of the Northern Owl Kingdoms called the Nunquivik, a mother polar bear named Svenna is forced to leave her two cubs, temporarily named First and Second before they get proper names, to take their place in a twisted cult of polar bears, led by one called the Grand Patek, worshipping a mighty constructed clock (put together by owls and a few sophisticated bears), known as the Ice Clock, upon a tall glacier, thus they are obsessed with time in a more humanlike sense. This great-sized clock was originally only meant to help predict the second happening of a past glacial-melting event called the Great Melting. With the great mechanism no longer being treated as a tool but now as an idol, this cult abducts cubs and forces them to work inside the giant clock's gears, turning it until they either die or lose one body part without dying - these enslaved cubs are referred to by the cultists as Tick Tocks. Escaping the rude and secretly cannibalistic Taaka, their first cousin once removed (she is their mother's first cousin, who even Svenna barely knows), First and Second (both born with special psychic powers) journey to find their long-lost father Svern, later joined by their second cousins Third and Froya. At the same time, the Grand Patek (the leader of the clock-worshipping bears) devises a master plan to even enslave the lands beyond the Nunquivik, even the Northern Owl Kingdoms. Svenna and Svern were both originally born and raised in the Northern Owl Kingdoms and thus know how to read and write. At one point in the first book it is revealed that Svenna knows the deceased Lyze of Kiel, or Ezylryb, and wonders what has happened back in the Owl Kingdoms since his death. It is also revealed that Svarr and Svenka, a clever polar bear from the time of Hoole (featured in The Coming of Hoole and To Be a King) who knew how to eavesdrop on others by listening through smee holes (natural steam vents), were Stellan and Jytte's ancestors.

1. The Quest of the Cubs (2018)
2. The Den of Forever Frost (2018)
3. The Keepers of the Keys (2019)

A 3D computer-animated film adaptation of the book was released by Warner Bros. in 2010. Zack Snyder directed the film as an animation debut with Jim Sturgess, Geoffrey Rush, Emily Barclay, Helen Mirren, Ryan Kwanten, Anthony LaPaglia, and David Wenham voicing the characters.

• Official website
• Kathryn Lasky's website
• Interview with Kathryn Lasky, BookReviewsAndMore.ca