The Grey King by Susan Cooper

The Grey King by Susan Cooper (1976 Newberry Medal Winner)

This is a book that I wasn't expecting to find on the list. Sure I've seen books from a series, but all of the ones that I recognized were the first book in th the series. The Grey King is the fourth book in The Dark is Rising series. Susan Cooper, along with Madeline L'Engle, are both authors that I was disappointed not to see multiple times on the list as well. All mock bitterness aside, let's talk about this wonderful book.

Before we can get into the actual story, we have three books of background to address. I'll try to keep it short, but I definitely have to explain the major characters.

Will Stanton

We meet young Will in the pages of The Dark is Rising. On his eleventh birthday, he notices some very strange things in his neighborhood. He discovers that this is because he is the seventh son of a seventh son, and because of this he is actually part of a group called the Old Ones.

As the youngest of the Old Ones, it is Will's responsibility to prepare for the final battle with the Dark. In all but the first book of the series, Will is the person resposible for most of the action of the last four books. As an Old One, Will can travel to different times that are important to the Old Ones, freeze time, and an assortment of impossible things.

Will is guided by the first of the Old Ones, a man called Merry Lyons.

Merry Lyons

He was the first Old One and has been involved in all of the battles against the Dark. I won't say anything more to avoid giving away too much.

The Book

After suffering a major illness, Will is sent to Wales to recuperate. While he is there, he is also searching for the Sleepers who are being watched by a Dark agent, the Grey King.

Will meets a strange young boy named Bran, and the two of them join forces to solve the mystery in the verses that Will discovered in the previous books.

The book is filled with Welsh, problem solving, and a look into the past. This is a great book for anyone that enjoys adventure stories filled with Fantasy elements. You can also talk with young readers about the friendship as it develops between Will and Bran, as well as making judgements about people that you meet.

I expect that I will come back to talk about the other books in this series if I ever get through the Caldecott and Newberry books.

A Wrinkle in Time (1963 Newberry Medal Winner)

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle (1963)

I love this book. I am disappointed to learn that L'Engle never won another medal for her other books. In fact, That is the reason that I thought for a long time that you could only win the medal once. She did win several Honor Medals, but this is her only Newberry Medal winning book.

I discovered this book when I was in Fifth grade. we were doing book reports, and my teacher suggested this book to me. I loved the characters and the story. It was my first introduction to a fully-rounded female character. Meg was brilliantly constructed, and it made me want more of those kinds of characters.

Let's talk about the basic story. Meg Murray is the oldest of four kids in her family. There are the twins, Sandy and Denny, and Charles Wallace. Her parents are both genius scientists. At the moment, they have been missing their father for several years. He went to work on a research project for the government. At first the whole family was with him, then the project required them to be away, then he just stopped sending messages at all.

This has made things very hard for Meg. First the Murrays live in a small town where there is lots of gossip. Second, Meg is very smart about things like mathematics and science, but she has her own tricks for doing the problems, so the teachers don't appreciate her. Third, Charles Wallace is considered to be a bit on the slow side by the town since he didn't start to speak until he was three, and then he just started speaking in complete, and rather loquacious language.

So that is the background of the story. Let's get into the exciting part.

Meg meets three mysterious women through Charles Wallace-Mrs. Which, Mrs. Who, and Mrs. Whatsit. The women inform Charles Wallace and Meg that their father is used a tesseract to jump to another place in the universe, and he is in trouble. Only Meg, Charles Wallace, and Calvin O'Keefe can save him. (I forgot about Calvin. He's a boy a bit older than Meg that Meg and Charles Wallace meet on the way to an old house where the three ladies are living. Calvin is like Meg because he is smarter than most people, and like the twins because he is athletic, and like Charles Wallace because he has the ability to understand people.)

Anyway, the ladies take the three children to a variety of places in their attempt to find Dr. Murray. There is a two-dimensional universe, and a planet with large hairy creatures that don't have eyes, but are wonderful and caring. Eventually, though, they find the planet with It.

I won't say anything more for fear of giving away too much, but this is the book that got me to try to memorize the periodic table of elements (which I gave up on later) and to work on my mathematics. It is also the book that got me hooked on Science Fiction.

This is also the 50th anniversary of A Wrinkle in Time, so it is the perfect time to check it out for the first time or the hundredth.