Guardians of Ga'Hoole: The Capture
Kathryn Lasky
 The Capture is about a young barn owl named Soren, who lives in the Forest Kindom of Tyto with his father and mother, Noctus and Marella, respectively, and older brother Kludd. One day, chick is hatched, and Soren's mother, Marella, names her Eglantine. Mrs. Plithiver, the nest-maid for the family, a blind snake, helps care for her. While Soren's parents are on a hunting trip, Kludd pushes Soren out of the nest. Soren gets snatched by a patrol unit from St. Aegolius Academy for Orphaned Owls. Grimble. Another owl is holding a tiny Elf Owl named Gylfie. Soon, Soren and Gylfie reach St. Aegolius Academy for Orphaned Owls. In this "orphanage", owls are "numbered" and forced to do a "sleeping march" where they march at night in the moonlight. Soren is number 12-1, and Gylfie is numbered 25-2. Hortense, a Spotted Owl, is number 12-8. Owls have to calls themselves and other owls by their numbers. The sleeping position is tipping your beak up and putting your head slightly back, while continuously repeating their own name. Gylfie tells Soren if an owl sleeps in this position under full shine (full moon) they forget their own personality and everything is the wrong side up. This is called moonblinking. Another rule is then revealed: no asking questions. Soren accidentally asks a question in the pelletorium and, as a punishment, his down gets plucked. He wakes up finding the pit guardian, Auntie Finny, standing above him. Later, forced to sleep under full shine again, Soren finds out that they are getting moon blinked by repeating their own names, which when a word is repeated continuessly, it starts to sound like a noise, not a word anymore. Gylfie then gets an idea: march in place under the rock ridge and say your number, not your real name. On the second day of doing this, an owl finds out and they are "moon scalded", or kept in full shine of the moon. Soren realizes that saying the Ga'Hoolian legends, or Tales of Yore, helps him clear his mind. Soren and Gylfie start telling legends, until the moon goes down. As they come out, they pretend to be perfectly moon blinked. Later, Gylfie sees Hortense trying to dislodge an owl's egg from the nest with bald eagles flying nearby. Gylfie and Soren confront Hortense, and find out she is not moonblinked, like them. Skench, Spoorn, Jatt, Jutt, and Auntie find Hortense trying to save the eggs. Hortense appears' to have died after being pushed off the high point of her nest in the hatchery. Grimble, who appears to be on Soren and Gylfies' side, teaches them how to fly, and they fly away, right at the moment when Skench comes in and kills Grimble. Gylfie and Soren meet Twilight, a Great Gray Owl. They agree to find the Great Ga'Hoole Tree, where a noble group of owls is found. They also agree to try to find their families, but are most unsuccessful. At the Desert Kingdom of Kuneer, they find a Burrowing Owl named Digger, who agreed to go the quest. At the Forest Kingdom of Tyto, Mrs. Plithiver was discovered and says she wants to come and go the quest,also. Mrs. P rests on Soren's shoulders, who is flying. Also, in the Desert Kingdom of Kuneer, they meet Hortense's eagles, Streak and Zan. Here, traveling to the Great Ga'Hoole Tree, the book ends off, and the book The Journey starts. The film Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole is based on this book, along with The Journey and The Rescue