A six hundred year old map found in an attic leads to a terrifying battle between good and evil. Simon, Jane and Barney Drew are holidaying in the Cornish town of Trewissick with their parents and Great Uncle Merry, known to the world as Merriman Lyon, a learned professor. They are renting a big grey house from Great Uncle Merry's friend, Captain Toms, for the duration of their vacation. One day they discover a secret door that leads into the attic and find an old manuscript, complete with a mysterious map. There are lots of odd and strange people in the town of Trewissick, some especially creepy. When Mr Withers and his sister Polly cheerfully invite the children on a boat trip, Jane declines, feeling there is something queer about the couple. Days later, the grey house is ransacked, all the books ripped from their shelves and the framed pictures of maps stolen. The break and enter job, it seems, is the work of the Withers siblings. The children decide it's time to confide in Great Uncle Merry, who is more confidante than authority figure. They show him the map and discover that it was written by a Cornish monk some six hundred years ago. It is in actual fact a copy of an earlier manuscript dating back another three hundred years. The map holds the key to where the Grail, a powerful relic from King Arthur, is hidden. And so begins a quest to recover the Grail, but also escape the gathering forces of evil. Over Sea, Under Stone is the first in a five part sequence of novels called The Dark is Rising by English novelist Susan Cooper. This first instalment has everything you could possibly wish for in a children's novel: a great cast of characters, including the mercurial Great Uncle Merry, a finely balanced plot that unfolds with a sense of wonder and surprise, and finally, a ripping adventure. The core of the novel rests on a battle between the forces of good and evil, and these sequences are written with heart stopping suspense. The final pages of the novel leave enough questions still floating in the air that reading the rest of The Dark is Rising Sequence seems a forgone conclusion. Riveting storytelling, full of fantastical elements, but rooted in an atmospheric Cornish seaside town that will recall youthful holidays spent swimming and trudging through seaweed. 9+ Over Sea, Under Stone, by Susan Cooper. Published by Puffin. $14.99 Review by Chris Saliba Comments are closed.
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