The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper

This novel comes next after Over Sea, Under Stone, which is also in the Little Library of Rescued Books. This series will get you in once you start reading it...and there is the film which can watch. I have The Seeker: the Dark is Rising DVD for any student who wishes to watch it. You can have a sneak preview by watching the trailer below. In this book the main character is eleven year old Will who is the seventh son of the seventh son, and he learns that he is an Old One whose destiny is to struggle for The Light(the good) against The Dark(evil). It contains elements of realistic fiction as well as fantasy. If you liked Harry Potter series, or books by the author C.S. Lewis, then I imagine you will enjoy this series too.

Over Sea, Under Stone by Susan Cooper

I found this in an Opportunity shop, it used to belong to one of my university friends, Jennifer Yearsly. It is all about the Drew children, Simon, Jane, and Barney who find an old map in a hidden room while summering at the Grey House in Cornwall. Along with their Great-Uncle Merry, they become embroiled in a web of intrigue that surrounds an Arthurian legend. In the beginning the story seems a bit slow and tedious as the plot and setting dominate, but it gets better. Barney has the youthful vulnerability of the youngest sibling, Jane is the the sensible and soft-spoken middle child, and Simon speaks with the assurance and bravado of the older brother. This is the first in a five book series called The Dark Rising. This first story in the series is much more in the vein of a mystery than the later novels in the sequence which fall much more into the fantasy category.