Ender takes classes and plays many war games, including a computer simulation called the Giant game. Over his first months in Battle School, Ender builds up a friendship with Shen and Alai, two new students. Ender agrees to fight in Battle School, even though he’ll miss Valentine, whom he loves more than anyone. Graff pressures the Wiggins into letting Ender go to Battle School, and tells Ender that he’ll be trained to protect the planet from Bugger aggression. The day after Ender’s fight with Stilson, the Wiggins are visited by Colonel Hyrum Graff, who informs Ender’s parents that Ender shows signs of great military potential. Peter resents Ender, while his sister, Valentine, loves him. Ender then goes home, where Peter bullies him. Instead of accepting Stilson’s insults, Ender savagely kicks him again and again. One day at school, Ender is bullied by a boy named Stilson. He is the third child of his parents-his older brother is Peter Wiggin and his older sister is Valentine Wiggin.

The brightest children are recruited for Battle School, where they’re trained in combat.Īt the beginning of the story, Ender Wiggin is a 6-year-old child. In order to ensure that humanity wins the next encounter with the Buggers, the International Fleet (IF)-the most powerful military group on Earth-monitors young children around the world, hoping to find signs of military genius. In the previous Bugger invasion (70 years before Ender’s Game takes place), the Buggers destroyed large chunks of China-they were only stopped from destroying the planet altogether because of Mazer Rackham, the legendary pilot who led a fleet of spaceships to destroy the Bugger fleet. Some time in the near future, Earth faces an existential threat from the Buggers, an alien race that has already killed millions of humans.

Ender book