The Grey King is the fourth and penultimate book in Susan Cooper’s award-winning The Dark is Rising Sequence. While recovering from an illness, Will travels to Wales to live on the farm of one of his uncles and aunts. Soon, he meets Bran and the duo set out on a quest to find the Golden … Read more
‘It looked, Jane thought, like a single representative of a fearful unknown species, from another planet, or from some unthinkably distant part of our own past.’ Greenwitch is the third book in Susan Cooper’s award-winning The Dark is Rising Sequence. As the Easter holidays begin, the Trewissick Grail is stolen. Coincidentally, Will Stanton, and Simon, … Read more
The Dark is Rising, written by Susan Cooper, is the second book in The Dark is Rising Sequence. Unlike the first book (Over Sea, Under Stone), this book is split into three parts (The Finding, The Learning and The Testing) and also uses chapter titles instead of numbering them 1-13. On Midwinter’s Eve, Will Stanton … Read more
First published in 1953, King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table was written by Roger Lancelyn Green and illustrated by Lotte Reiniger. This collection of stories mainly takes place in the peaceful land of Logres that Arthur established in Britain. Roger Green wrote this book with one purpose: putting the stand-alone legends of … Read more
The Big Six is the ninth instalment and first mystery in Arthur Ransome’s fictional Swallows and Amazons series. This 400-page children’s classic is split into 32 chapters and an epilogue with each chapter having its own title and being numbered by roman numerals. Furthermore, this novel includes occasional black and white pictures with a maximum … Read more
Susan Cooper wrote this fantasy for older children and adults in 1965. Over Sea, Under Stone is the first of five books in the Dark is Rising series. With a total of 362 pages, this novel is split across 14 long chapters and an epilogue. Simon, Jane and Barney Drew go on holiday with their … Read more
‘But you’ll be marooned fair and square…’ As the 8th book in the classic children’s series of Swallows and Amazons, Secret Water was written by Arthur Ransome. The Swallows (John, Susan, Titty, Roger, Bridget and Sinbad) are marooned on an island. They start mapping the Secret Archipelago, watching for the distant sail of a relief … Read more
The sequel to Boy, Going Solo, is an autobiography by Roald Dahl describing his time working in Africa and fighting in World War II. The first half of Going Solo describes Dahl’s time in Africa with most chapters talking about one of his adventures. Meanwhile, the second half discusses his time in the war with … Read more
The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs is by Steve Brusatte, a palaeontologist, and discusses the dinosaur’s world and the time leading up to it. While dinosaurs themselves are a main topic in the book, Brusatte also creates a clear image of their environment, including the weather. Two other topics are the mass extinctions that … Read more
The seventh Swallows and Amazons book, We Didn’t Mean to Go to Sea, is one of several by Arthur Ransome. The Swallows (John, Susan, Titty and Roger) and their mother are waiting at Harwich for the return of their father. Soon, they meet Jim Brading, who agrees to take the Swallows as crew. However, fog … Read more