Product Description

There is a Welsh legend about a harp of gold, hidden within a certain hill, that will be found by a boy and a white dog with silver eyes -- a dog that can see the wind. Will Stanton knew nothing of this when he came to Wales to recover from a severe illness. But when he met Bran, a strange boy who owned a white dog, he began to remember. For Will is the last-born of the Old Ones, immortals dedicated to saving the world from the forces of evil, the Dark. And it is Will's task to wake-with the golden harp -- the six who must be roused from their long slumber in the Welsh hills to prepare for the last battle between the Dark and the Light.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #653790 in Books
• Published on: 1999-10-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 176 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780689829840
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From School Library Journal
Gr 5-8-While recovering from hepatitis, Will Stanton is sent to a farm in Wales where he is soon caught up in the battle against "the Dark." He struggles to recall the prophetic lines he once memorized and gradually, as he learns the local place names of the geographic features around him, the meaning of the lines becomes clear to him. Through Bran, a young boy with mysterious origins who becomes Will's friend, Will fulfills the prophecies and once again defeats the Dark. This fourth book of Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising series (S&S Childrens, 1975) won the 1976 Newbery Medal. Twenty-five years later, it is still as powerful and mesmerizing as when it was first published. Richard Mitchley's reading is excellent and heightens listeners' enjoyment of Cooper's prose. His ease with Welsh pronunciation and the distinctive cadence of Welsh English adds greatly to the authenticity of the story's setting, which is an essential element of this book. He gives the characters distinctive voices without actually doing voices for each. Children not familiar with the earlier books in the series may find the basic premise a bit confusing since Will's status as an "old one" and the conflict between the light and the dark are not given much explanation. However, this audiobook is so well done that those who enjoy fantasy will relish it. It will also be a good choice for older children with reading disabilities when they need to "read" a Newbery title.

Louise L. Sherman, formerly Anna C. Scott School, Leonia, NJ

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Review
Psychology Today "Susan Cooper is one of the few contemporary writers who has the vivid imagination, the narrative powers, and the moral vision that permit her to create the kind of sweeping conflict between good and evil that lies at the heart of all great fantasy. Tolkien had it. So did C.S. Lewis. And Cooper writes in the same tradition." -- Review

From the Publisher
There is a Welsh legend about a harp of gold, hidden within a certain hill, that will be found by a boy and a white dog with silver eyes -- a dog that can see the wind. Will Stanton knew nothing of this when he came to Wales to recover from a severe illness. But when he met Bran, the strange boy who owned a white dog, he began to remember. For Will is the last-born of the Old Ones, immortals dedicated to saving the world from the forces of evil, the Dark. And it is Will's task to wake -- with the golden harp -- the six who must be roused from their long slumber in the Welsh hills to prepare for the last battle between the Dark and the Light.

Customer Reviews

Outstanding
"The Dark Is Rising" is a hard book to top, but Susan Cooper nearly matches it in "Grey King." A stunning, atmospheric Welsh fantasy tinged with Arthurian legend, it also introduces one of the most important and unusual characters in the classic series.

In the aftermath of a nasty case of hepatitis, Will Stanton has temporarily forgotten his mission from the Light: to recover a golden harp, with the help of the "raven boy" and "silver eyes that see the wind." When his family sends him to Wales to recover from the illness, he regains his memory when he meets an albino boy his own age named Bran -- which means "raven." Bran's mother "Gwenny" vanished many years before, and his stepfather has devoted himself to religion and penitance. Bran's only friend is the silver-eyed dog Cafall.

Will acquaints his new friend with more information about the battle with the Dark, while Bran acquaints him with information about Wales that can help Will find the golden harp, and wake the Sleepers under the hill. But the malevolent Grey King is spying on them with magical warestones and trying to wrest the harp from Will. To stop the Grey King, Will must learn the secret of Bran's past and evade the dangerous farmer Caradog Pritchard...

Atmosphere is thick and enticing in "Grey King" -- Cooper has clearly come a long way from the fluffier "Over Sea Under Stone." This book, unlike "Greenwitch," does not handle the Drew family, or even much about Merriman: it's all about Bran and Will, who are given equal parts of the plotline. Though there are many other characters, these two are the core of the story.

Here the Arthurian theme, which has been present in a smaller way throughout the series, becomes more pronounced and integral. Cooper continues interweaving mythic elements into it, such as the Sleepers, Cafall the dog, and the Brenin Llwyd. Fans of mythology and other mythic-themed stories such as the Prydain Chronicles will have a heyday.

Will is very much like he is in "Greenwitch" -- sometimes he's an ordinary preteen boy who starts yelling "Achtung!" at the top of his lungs, and sometimes he is the wise and ancient Old One, with knowledge he learned from the book of Gramarye. Bran is an instantly sympathetic character, a very ordinary boy with an extraordinay past; he, like Will in the second book, gradually grows into a unique and more powerful person. Caradog Pritchard will inspire disgust from his first appearance onward, while the tragic Owen Davies will gain the sympathy of the readers despite his insulated life.

Perhaps the worst thing about reading "Grey King" is the knowledge that there is only one more book in this series. But if that book is half as good as "Grey King," then it will be quite a ride before the end.

Outstanding
Beautifully written and dramatically narrated, The Grey King is yet another of this fine author's fantasy series about a young boy unwittingly destined to fight the final battle between the light and the dark on planet earth. Will Stanton is portrayed realistically as an untested, frequently confused adolescent Old One who must summon up the courage to persist in this conflict no matter what terrifying threats the Dark conjures up to destroy him and all things good. The Grey King takes place in Wales, one of the most mythic places on earth. Cooper skillfully weaves folklore into this compelling adventure story, full of characters that come alive as loveable, hateful, and most of all, fully human. The narrator's mastery of drama and British accents is a delight. Highly recommended - if you enjoy Harry Potter, try the Dark is Rising series, no matter what your age.

A Magical Read
The book opens with a Welsh poem: "On the day of the dead,when the year too dies/Must the youngest open the oldest hills/Throughthe door of the birds, where the breeeze breaks..." A beatiful, mystical and magical beginning to a beatiful, mystical and magical book.

We see Will Stanton, a seemingly normal English boy struck terribly ill, go to Wales to visit his aunt and uncle to recuperate, where he will have the adventure of perhaps a lifetime, sweeping everybody around him, including the reader into it. As we read of his quest to awaken the Sleepers, we learn a little Welsh culture, history, and language. We feel the emotions of the characters involved; experience their sorrow, bewilderment, hatred and joy. We dabble in a little High Magic, and realize the presence of the Dark, and the Light's endless struggle against it.

One of the great things about this book is that you don't have to read the other parts of the series to understand, and become swept up in the magic of it. Even though it's the second to last book, it was the first I read of the series. It speaks for itself.

If you liked C. S. Lewis's "The Chronicles of Narnia", you'll probably enjoy these books. It's the same struggle between good and evil told in a new way, and though I think this series is the easier read, it loses nothing off it's competion.

Diolch yn fawr!