The Dark is Rising
By Susan Cooper
Every once in a while a book, maybe a book series, comes along that grips your imagination and fuels it. A lot of times those series are written for young readers, in my experience. I think of the The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis or Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling or Redwall by Brian Jacques… or The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper. If you haven’t discovered it yet, you have some good reading in store.
The Dark is Rising sequence has long been one of my all time favorite series of books and in particular, The Dark is Rising was my favorite book, perhaps because it was the first one I read. (I did read them out of order but it didn’t diminish my enjoyment of the series at all.) I first picked them up as a teenager because a family I babysat for was reading them a chapter or two a night. It was something the whole family could enjoy.
If you are going to read just one book, read The Dark is Rising. It is an Arthurian legend and Welsh folk hero based story that holds something for anyone, no matter how old you are. I think it’s a better book then the first and more interesting to older readers.
The story opens on Midwinter’s Eve, the longest night of the year and the evening before Will Stanton’s 11th birthday. The animals are acting strange around Will, there’s a tramp hanging around and an unexpected blizzard blows in, giving Will the heavy snow he’s always wanted to see. It all serves to set the stage for the beginning of Will’s awakening as an Old One.
“In the midst of all the din and flurry, he had suddenly had a strange feeling stronger than any he had ever known; he had been aware that someone was trying to tell him something, something that had missed him because he could not understand the words. Not words exactly; it had been like a kind of silent shout.”
When Will wakes in the morning, everyone else is asleep and he can’t rouse a single person in his large family.
“There was a total silence as deep and blanketing as the timeless snow; the house and everyone in it lay in a sleep that would not be broken.”
But in his awakening as an Old One, Will realizes that this is not as alarming as it might be under normal circumstances. He dresses and sets off in the deep snow, beginning his quest though he doesn’t even yet know that he will be seeking the six magical Signs that will one day be integral in driving back the Dark.
Every once in a while I pull out this book and re-read it, falling under the spell it weaves, of an epic quest and an innocent child who awakens to the terrible beauty and sadness of life.
No matter your age, this book will take you on a journey that will inspire you.
