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The Dark Is Rising Sequence
''The Dark Is Rising Sequence'' is a series of five contemporary fantasy novels for older children and young adults that were written by the British author Susan Cooper and published from 1965 to 1977. The first book in the series, '' Over Sea, Under Stone'', was originally conceived as a stand-alone novel, and the sequence gets its name from the second novel in the series, '' The Dark Is Rising''. ''The Dark Is Rising Sequence'' is used as an overarching title in several omnibus, boxed-set, and coordinated editions; but the title of ''The Dark Is Rising'' is also used for the whole series. The books depict a struggle between forces of good and evil called "The Light" and "The Dark", and draw upon Arthurian legends, Celtic mythology, Norse mythology and English folklore. The books were also influenced by Cooper's reading of Robert Graves' study of mythology, ''The White Goddess''. Both magical and ordinary children are prominent throughout the series. It was inaugurated in 19 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Susan Cooper
Susan Mary Cooper (born 23 May 1935) is an English author of children's books. She is best known for '' The Dark Is Rising'', a contemporary fantasy series set in England and Wales, which incorporates British mythology such as the Arthurian legends and Welsh folk heroes. For that work, in 2012 she won the lifetime Margaret A. Edwards Award from the American Library Association, recognizing her contribution to writing for teens. In the 1970s two of the five novels were named the year's best English-language book with an "authentic Welsh background" by the Welsh Books Council. In 2024, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association named her the 40th Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master in recognition of her significant contributions to the literature of science fiction and fantasy. Biography Cooper was born in 1935 in Burnham, Buckinghamshire, to Ethel May (''née'' Field) and her husband John Richard Cooper. Her father had worked in the reading room of the Natura ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jonathan Cape
Jonathan Cape is a British publishing firm headquartered in London and founded in 1921 by Herbert Jonathan Cape, who was head of the firm until his death. Cape and his business partner Wren Howard (1893–1968) set up the publishing house in 1921. They established a reputation for high-quality design and production and a fine list of English-language authors, fostered by the firm's editor and publisher's reader, reader Edward Garnett. Cape's list of writers ranged from poets including Robert Frost and C. Day Lewis, to children's authors such as Roald Dahl, Hugh Lofting and Arthur Ransome, to James Bond novels by Ian Fleming, to heavyweight fiction by James Joyce and T. E. Lawrence. After Cape's death, the firm later merged successively with three other London publishing houses. In 1987 it was taken over by Random House. Its name continues as one of Random House's British Imprint (trade name), imprints. Cape – biography Early years Herbert Jonathan Cape was born in London o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Runes
Runes are the Letter (alphabet), letters in a set of related alphabets, known as runic rows, runic alphabets or futharks (also, see ''#Futharks, futhark'' vs ''#Runic alphabets, runic alphabet''), native to the Germanic peoples. Runes were primarily used to represent a sound value (a phoneme) but they were also used to represent the concepts after which they are named (ideographic runes). Runology is the academic study of the runic alphabets, runic inscriptions, runestones, and their history. Runology forms a specialised branch of Germanic philology. The earliest secure runic inscriptions date from at latest AD 150, with a possible earlier inscription dating to AD 50 and Tacitus's possible description of rune use from around AD 98. The Svingerud Runestone dates from between AD 1 and 250. Runes were generally replaced by the Latin alphabet as the cultures that had used runes underwent Christianisation, by approximately AD 700 in central Europe and 1100 in northern Europe. Ho ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stanton Drew Stone Circles
The Stanton Drew stone circles are just outside the village of Stanton Drew in the English county of Somerset. The largest stone circle is the Great Circle, in diameter and the second largest stone circle in Britain (after Avebury); it is considered to be one of the largest Neolithic monuments to have been built. The date of construction is not known, but is thought to be between 3000 and 2000 BCE, which places it in the Late Neolithic to Early Bronze Age. It was made a scheduled monument in 1982. The Great Circle was surrounded by a ditch and is accompanied by smaller stone circles to the northeast and southwest. There is also a group of three stones, known as The Cove, in the garden of the local pub. Slightly further from the Great Circle is a single stone, known as Hautville's Quoit. Some of the stones are still vertical, but the majority are now recumbent, and some are no longer present. The stone circles have been studied since John Aubrey's visit in 1664, and some exc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Greenwitch
Greenwitch is a contemporary fantasy novel by Susan Cooper, published by Atheneum Press in 1974. It is the third entry in the five book ''Dark Is Rising Sequence''. Synopsis The Drew children – Simon, Jane, and Barney – return to Cornwall with their uncle Merriman Lyon. Merriman enlists them along with Will Stanton, his protégé, to recover a golden grail needed to defeat the forces of the Dark. Themes The book draws heavily on Celtic mythology and Arthurian legend, as well as Classical mythology. The figure of the " Greenwitch", and the associated all-female festival attended by Jane, has been compared to female fertility rites in European mythology. Critical reception The book received mixed to positive reviews from critics. ''Kirkus Reviews'' described it as "breathtakingly impressive", but criticized the conflict between good and evil as being overly abstract. Both Rebecca Fisher of ''Fantasy Literature'' and Tara L. Rivera of Common Sense Media praised Cooper's ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
King Arthur
According to legends, King Arthur (; ; ; ) was a king of Great Britain, Britain. He is a folk hero and a central figure in the medieval literary tradition known as the Matter of Britain. In Wales, Welsh sources, Arthur is portrayed as a leader of the Sub-Roman Britain, post-Roman Britons in battles against the Anglo-Saxons in the late-5th and early-6th centuries. He first appears in two early medieval historical sources, the ''Annales Cambriae'' and the ''Historia Brittonum'', but these date to 300 years after he is supposed to have lived, and most historians who study the period Historicity of King Arthur, do not consider him a historical figure.Tom Shippey, "So Much Smoke", ''review'' of , ''London Review of Books'', 40:24:23 (20 December 2018) His name also occurs in early Welsh-language literature, Welsh poetic sources, such as ''Y Gododdin''. The character developed through Welsh mythology, appearing either as a great warrior defending Britain from human and supernatura ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Holy Grail
The Holy Grail (, , , ) is a treasure that serves as an important motif in Arthurian literature. Various traditions describe the Holy Grail as a cup, dish, or stone with miraculous healing powers, sometimes providing eternal youth or sustenance in infinite abundance, often guarded in the custody of the Fisher King and located in the hidden Grail castle. By analogy, any elusive object or goal of great significance may be perceived as a "holy grail" by those seeking such. A mysterious "grail" (Old French: ''graal'' or ''greal''), wondrous but not unequivocally holy, first appears in '' Perceval, the Story of the Grail'', an unfinished chivalric romance written by Chrétien de Troyes around 1190. Chrétien's story inspired many continuations, translators and interpreters in the later-12th and early-13th centuries, including Wolfram von Eschenbach, who portrayed the Grail as a stone in ''Parzival''. The Christian, Celtic or possibly other origins of the Arthurian grail trope are ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cornwall
Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, Devon to the east, and the English Channel to the south. The largest urban area is the Redruth and Camborne conurbation. The county is predominantly rural, with an area of and population of 568,210. After the Redruth-Camborne conurbation, the largest settlements are Falmouth, Cornwall, Falmouth, Penzance, Newquay, St Austell, and Truro. For Local government in England, local government purposes most of Cornwall is a Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area, with the Isles of Scilly governed by a Council of the Isles of Scilly, unique local authority. The Cornish nationalism, Cornish nationalist movement disputes the constitutional status of Cornwall and seeks greater autonomy within the United Kingdom. Cornwall is the weste ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Film Adaptation
A film adaptation transfers the details or story of an existing source text, such as a novel, into a feature film. This transfer can involve adapting most details of the source text closely, including characters or plot points, or the original source can serve as loose inspiration, with the implementation of only a few details. Although often considered a type of derivative work, film adaptation has been conceptualized recently by academic scholars such as Robert Stam as a dialogic process. While the most common form of film adaptation is the use of a novel as the basis, other works adapted into films include non-fiction (including journalism), autobiographical works, comic books, scriptures, plays, historical sources and even other films. Adaptation from such diverse resources has been a ubiquitous practice of filmmaking since the earliest days of cinema in nineteenth-century Europe. In contrast to when making a remake, movie directors usually take more creative liberties when c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Silver On The Tree
''Silver on the Tree'' is a contemporary fantasy novel by Susan Cooper, published by Chatto & Windus in 1977. It is the final entry in the five book ''Dark Is Rising Sequence''. Plot Will Stanton and his mentor Merriman, two of the last Old Ones, gather allies and magical objects to help defeat the rising Dark. They ally with Bran, a Welsh descendant of King Arthur, and the three Drew children, to form the Six who are prophesied to triumph over the powers of the Dark. Significant mythical elements in the book include the bard Taliesin (under his alternate name Gwion), King Gwyddno Garanhir and the Drowned Hundred, the Welsh tradition of the Mari Llwyd, Arthur's ship Prydwen, and the Ritual of oak and mistletoe. Critical reception The book was compared less favorably to earlier instalments in the series, with particular criticism towards its final battle. However, it still received generally positive reviews. Mari Ness of Tor.com praised it for being "beautifully and ly ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Association For Library Service To Children
The Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) is a division of the American Library Association. ALSC has over 4,000 members, including children, experts in children's literature, publishers, faculty members, and other adults. The Association has nearly 60 active committees and task forces, including programs for youth, publishing resources and journals, evaluating and awarding media for children. ALSC sets standards for library services to children through regular updates to its "Competencies for Librarians Serving Children in Public Libraries." The most recent competencies which was adopted in 2015, emphasized seven core areas of competence, including; services, programs, outreach, collection development, and administrative practices. Media mentorship In 2015, the ALSC Board accepted a white paper titled "Media Mentorship in Libraries Serving Youth". This paper outlines the role of librarians and other library staff who serve youth and families with particular regard ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
