The Grey Fox

This mysterious story is the fourth in a series of five books written by Susan Cooper. The series is called "The Dark is Rising". The two main characters in this book are Will Stanton and Bran Davies. Will Stanton happens to be the youngest of the Old Ones and Bran Davies a boy of the same age with little skin color and white hair. The story takes place in farm country where they commonly speak Welsh. Will has become quite ill and has been sent to the county on a convalescent in hopes he will recover. At the Clwyd Farm his health returns, he meets the Raven Boy (Bran Davies), and Will remembers fragments of his destiny. As time passes, his destiny becomes clearer as one vision does when the morning fog begins to lift. Will must use the harp to awaken the Sleepers so that the Dark does not overtake the Light or the Light's influence on mankind. Although Will has won the battle in the hills, the stage has been set for a much larger battle between the Dark and Light in book five.

This was a difficult book for me to get into. I am not sure if it had to do with coming into the latter part of the series (e.g. book 4 of 5 books within the series) and not starting at the beginning or if it was the constant use of "Welsh" terminology. Throughout the book, it seemed as if I was a fourth party because I felt as if I missed out on the history or the build up of the current story. There were characters who had depth due to previous introductions but since I have not read the three previous books, I was not privy to that history. Also, it was difficult to read in Welsh. My brain had difficulty switching the w sound to an oo sound (as in pool) or the y sound to an u sound (as in run). Most likely I would have enjoyed the book more if I did not have to switch to reading in Welsh or at least trying to read a word as a Welshman would pronounce it. The thing is I don't even know what these words even sound like. I don't know anyone who speaks Welsh, thus I have no real way of knowing how to properly pronounce some or all of the Welsh words in the text.

When time permits (my goal is to read all of the Newbery Award winning books before June of 2008) I will consider reading the remaining books within the Dark Is Rising series. However, when I do, I will read them in order.

AR SCORE: 90%