It starts out feeling very Narnia-esque; a family siblings go to stay with an eccentric uncle professor and then the kids discover a passage behind the wardrobe. Even if that wasn't the world's biggest Narnia nod, it's still clever and sweet. Once the kids found the map in the attic, it felt very Boxcar Children-esque (my favorite books when I was a kid). They have to work out the clues to solve this mystery before the bad guys get there first (and how bad they were -- creepers!) And by the halfway point it had just morphed into a full-on Grail quest and I'm over here fist pumping. :D The novel The Dark Is Rising features Will Stanton, age 11, [b] who learns on that birthday that he is one of an ancient magical people called "Old Ones", and is destined to wield the powers of The Light in the ancient struggle with The Dark. In the U.S. it was a Newbery Honor Book (runner up for the medal). [4] Its 2007 film adaptation, titled The Seeker in America and The Dark Is Rising in Britain, made significant plot and character divergences from the book. This is a story following three kids who go on an adventure to the coast and they stay in a very old house owned by their Great Uncle Merry. Whilst there they discover a map which they think will lead them to the Holy Grail of King Arthur so they follow the clues and try to find out where it leads. Clute, John (1997). "Cooper, Susan". The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction . Retrieved 5 August 2013.

urn:lcp:overseaunderston0000coop:epub:a3e778ba-3bab-4d95-a251-863b61b20172 Foldoutcount 0 Identifier overseaunderston0000coop Identifier-ark ark:/13960/t0tr4zp59 Invoice 1652 Isbn 9781416949640 while i am waiting for that,i will write a review for this book. obviously, there are going to be comparisons to that narnia series - british siblings shuttled off to a spooky house with secret passageways behind a wardrobe with an eccentric older relative and some christian mythology thrown in for funs. Now, onto The Dark Is Rising itself! Spending a book with Will and the other Stantons feels like a lovely idea right now. And of course the adult me figured Uncle Merry out in the first chapter, the first time he refused to answer a direct question and put that faraway Eagle-on-a-crag look on his face.

Over Sea, Under Stone

Smith, Karen Patricia (1994). "Susan Cooper: Overview". In Laura Standley Berger (ed.). Twentieth-Century Young Adult Writers. Detroit: St. James Press. The rooks: The majority of these birds are servants of the Dark and attract their forces wherever they are seen.

The Doors: A set of carved oak doors that lead through Time. Old Ones can summon these doors to appear at will to transport themselves through time and space. The doors disappear when the Old Ones pass through them, accompanied by the haunting bell chime music of the Light. Their origin is not explained in the books. Karen Patricia Smith wrote "Susan Cooper has come to be recognized as a major author of books for children and young adults. Her first work for children, Over Sea, Under Stone came as a response to a contest designed to honor the memory of E. Nesbit. Cooper's major contribution to date has been The Dark Is Rising series, which greatly expands the mythical theme suggested in Over Sea, Under Stone and reveals Cooper's extraordinary prowess as an author of fantasy... The shadowy aspect of the conflict and the inability to 'read' clearly the motivations of some of the characters are areas in which Cooper has been criticized. However, I feel that the ambiguity of protagonists and antagonists is a deliberate literary device. Rather than succumbing to artistic flaw, Cooper goes beyond the conventional expectations of her readers by inviting them to glimpse the complex, the unexplainable, and often the threatening aspects of mankind's nature. By offering the thesis that the human psyche may manifest itself in explicit actions or present itself in a mysterious and often frustrating manner, Cooper exceeds the traditional presentations of good versus evil often found in fantasy literature." [13] Interview with Susan Cooper | Robbins Library Digital Projects". d.lib.rochester.edu . Retrieved 31 March 2022. Jane is neat and kind. Naturally cautious, she serves as a voice of reason for her brothers, who often want to rush headlong into danger. Although she is very good and comes to fight fiercely for the Light, she is at first often cautious about getting too involved in things they know little about, being usually concerned about the danger involved. Once she has decided to help the Light, however, she is very courageous. Despite her young age, she is frequently described as having strong maternal instincts, usually for her brothers but sometimes for other members of the Six, including for Gumerry, despite his being several millennia her elder. Despite being generally good-natured, in the fifth book she is, for a time, strongly beset by the Dark, causing her to be unusually irritable.Old Speech is the spoken form of the ancient language of the Old Ones. When an Old One comes to power, this language is used instinctively by the Old One when speaking to members of the Light or the Dark. Will Stanton begins to do this without even realizing it. When an Old One speaks the Old Speech in front of a normal human, it will sound like gibberish. In this story we not only see three young British Middle-class children making fun of the working class, anyone foreign, anyone gay and anyone even remotely different, but we see them doing so completely obliviously. These three children aren't 'bad', in fact they are the 'heroes' of the book, but the problem of the time it was written (60s) is that a lot of people (clearly including this author) held many of these prejudices themselves and had no issue writing these into their own works. So yeah. If you put Narnia, the Boxcar Children, and Indiana Jones into a blender, this would be the amazing smoothie that comes out. It was so brilliant (especially Prof Lyon, OMG) and so fun and really unexpectedly creepy. There were several points where I found myself legitimately creeped out (the bad guys were EXCELLENT bad guys). The kids acted and sounded like kids. There were a few grammatical errors, quotation marks missing and things like that, but this was overall a really cool book. Excited for the rest because I looooooove Celtic mythology. Following the successful film adaptations of other fantasy classics, it was announced in 2005 that the novel The Dark Is Rising was being developed as a major motion picture. Called The Seeker in the US, the film was a joint venture between 20th Century Fox and Walden Media. John Hodge wrote the screenplay and the film was directed by David L. Cunningham and produced by Marc E. Platt. Ian McShane played the role of Merriman Lyon while Alexander Ludwig played the young Will Stanton as an American. Frances Conroy and Christopher Eccleston (as The Rider) [18] also star. Filming began in February 2007 in Bucharest, Romania. The film was released on 5 October 2007, in the United States and the UK. It was not successful. Cooper wrote her first book for young readers in response to a publishing house competition; "Over Sea, Under Stone" would later form the basis for her critically acclaimed five-book fantasy sequence, "The Dark Is Rising." The fourth book in the series, "The Grey King," won the Newbery Medal in 1976. By that time, Susan Cooper had been living in America for 13 years, having moved to marry her first husband, an American professor, and was stepmother to three children and the mother of two.

They recognise a drawing of the local coastline that may be a kind of map, with almost illegible text, but Barney realises that the map refers to King Arthur and his knights. The children decide to keep the discovery to themselves. Margot Adler (27 September 2007). "Author Uncertain About 'Dark' Leap to Big Screen". All Things Considered. NPR. Radio broadcast narrated by Adler incorporating material from interviews with Susan Cooper and John Hodge. Audio transcript at npr.org (select "Listen to the story") retrieved 2013-01-09.Bird, Elizabeth (7 July 2012). "Top 100 Chapter Book Poll Results". School Library Journal. A Fuse #8 Production. Blog (blog.schoollibraryjournal.com) . Retrieved 19 August 2012. I read the shit out of this series when I was a kid. I still have the above original copy I read as a kid. I haven't re-read them in years but they still stand out as some of, perhaps THE, best series of "fantastic" novels for children.

Old Ones: Ancient and immortal, the Old Ones are mystical beings who possess great magical power. They are found in all parts of the world and are of many races and cultures. Capable of performing seemingly impossible feats, including freezing time and controlling the elements, they serve the Light in the war against the Dark. The Great Lords of the Dark have many similar characteristics and abilities but are not Old Ones. The two factions struggle to determine the destiny of mankind; while the Light fights for freedom and free will, the Dark fights for chaos, confusion and the subversion of man's agency. Mano, D. Keith (22 April 1973). " The Dark Is Rising". The New York Times Book Review. p.8 . Retrieved 5 August 2013. And yet, despite these elements, I liked that the book retains the feel of a children’s adventure. The three Drew children, all likeable, are not extraordinary or superheroes in any way, just ordinary children but ones who are on a rather dangerous treasure hunt.

I wanted to like this but couldn't sink my teeth into the plot or characters. Jane, Simon, and Barney, go with their parents to Cornwall to visit their Uncle Merry. The three explore the old grey house and discover an ancient map that puts them on the quest for the Holy Grail. The forces of Dark want the map too for its unlimited power and with the help of Uncle Merry it is a mad race to see who can find it first. The threesome are not sure who is good or bad and their innocent trust oftentimes leads them to dangerous situations. She is one of three children in the Drew Family; her older brother is Simon Drew and her younger brother is Barney Drew. Her mother is a painter and her father is a doctor. The family resides in London.