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The Dark Is RisingSusan Cooper
The Dark Is Rising
by Susan Cooper
On his eleventh birthday Will learns he is the last of the Old Ones, and must find six signs while the Dark rises through a bitter English winter.
A story about children and witches and wizards, epic and spooky in tone. We would put it with children of 10–13, and at a reading age of about 11 for reading alone.
Worth knowing before you buy
- Frightening scenes
None of this makes it a bad book — often the opposite. It is here so you can decide whether it is right for your child now or in a year or two.
Our take on this book
On the Midwinter Day of his eleventh birthday, in a Britain gripped by an unnatural, deepening snow, Will Stanton learns he is the last of the Old Ones, born to find six great Signs and turn back the rising power of the Dark. Susan Cooper's novel is steeped in English myth and landscape — the Wild Hunt, old carols, the Thames valley under snow — and its atmosphere is extraordinary, a genuine chill that comes from cold and ancient dread rather than gore. It is denser and more demanding than most fantasy for this age, moving in the rhythms of legend, and it has frightening scenes as the Dark presses in. For a strong, patient reader of ten to thirteen it is a book that can become a lifelong favourite, one they return to every midwinter; less confident readers may find its mythic pace hard going, so it rewards the right child at the right moment.
If they like this, try these
Chosen by matching age, reading age, tone and subject — not by what is selling.
ElidorAlan Garner
Howl's Moving CastleDiana Wynne Jones
A Pinch of MagicMichelle Harrison
A Wizard of EarthseaUrsula K. Le Guin
Children of the QuicksandsEfua Traoré
The Girl Who Drank the MoonKelly Barnhill
Or let them write their own.
Nothing gets a child reading like a story they invented themselves. Your child plans the characters and the plot, and we write, illustrate and print it as a real book with their name on the cover as the author.
Find another book
Tell us the age, the reading age and what they like, and we will suggest a handful.