I had to read all the Potter books out loud to my son when he was little. I liked the characters and storytelling, but the prose wasn’t her strong suit.
There was a great article last year about the series in The Guardian by one of my favourite writers, Robert Macfarlane (The Old Ways, which I wish more people knew about). Thanks for spotlighting the books.
OK as a middle school teacher, I have a lot of thoughts on this:
The Dark Is Rising definitely suffers from bad cover syndrome, which means I have never had a student pick it off my shelf, despite having it there for the past 16 years. Also, that description you shared is well-written, but will immediately turn most 11-year-olds off of reading it. It signals its age, calling back to a time where a paragraph might be devoted to the setting, when there are a solid percentage of kids who have only previously read the Wimpy Kid series. They do not have the attention span to think about what *kind* of gray day it was outside.
Interestingly, I think WK, Dahl, and HP all share a certain mean streak even in their protagonists; the difference is that WK author Jeff Kinney and Dahl are aware when their characters are mean (Kinney is basically writing Curb Your Enthusiasm for kids, while Dahl delights in the meanness), where Rowling is not.
I think what people miss about HP is that it's not really a fantasy book; it's a mystery with some magic thrown in. That's why the journey to the big bad isn't the focus, even though it seems like it should feel that way (and the movies emphasize that element). Like most mysteries, it's about the characters we're bumping into along the way, and the series regulars that we need to check in with.
It also, as you pointed out, serves an extremely under-served population. The vocabulary in The Dark is Rising is WAY above Harry Potter (different measures put the difficulty about 3 "grade levels" apart). There is a relative lack of fun stories aimed at 11-to-13-year-olds that the average 11-year-old can actually understand. Mystery, Horror, and Sports books are particularly underrepresented; it makes a certain sense that a solid entry in one of those genres would take off.
Also worth mentioning is pretty much any of Diana Wynn Jones work. She’s got a mountain of incredible Ya fantasy, and even JK Rowling claimed to take inspiration from her.
I think HP is mostly about the world-building. JKR does a thoroughly good job of creating the setting, magic, creatures, language. And this is appealing to younger children. It's escapist fantasy.
I remember watching the films and having almost nothing to chew on after. My one thought was that Neville, the kid who isn't naturally rich and talented would have made the best character.
Also, what is the point of Ron Weasley? He seems to be nothing but a body that hangs around with Harry. He seems to do almost nothing useful. Sidekicks are supposed to add something, bail out the protagonist sometimes. Other than playing a game of chess, that's all I remember in the whole series.
Oh, The Dark is Rising series is fabulous. I'm too old to have read it as a child, but I read it in my forties and was entranced. Great storytelling, everlasting themes, strong characters, real jeopardy. I have copies on my shelves still and frequently recommend it to adult readers! That film of it really sucks.
This has inspired me to finally look for a complete set of The Dark is Rising, which I never finished in my youth because I couldn't find the remaining paperbacks that matched the two I already had. I got them used (with good illustrations on the cover and the title framed and set in a non-hokey font) and the publisher had long since moved on to the first round of bad covers. But I've read the two I have about half a dozen times over the years.
I am a huge Susan Cooper fan. I think I first read her when I was around 14 or 15. At the time I loved the atmosphere of the books and really enjoyed the character of Will. I identified with his strong desire to do what was right but also the bewilderment that came with taking on a quest that was so much larger than himself. But my first fantasy series that set me up as a life long fan is Earthsea books by Ursula Le Guin. I read and re-read every book in that cycle (as she grew the series over decades, I think). It made me a life-long Le Guin fan, only later did I discover her incredible science fiction. Reflecting on her comment about Rowling’s work being mean-spirited, if you set the context of that comment using her Earthsea themes and characters like Ged, Tenar and Therru, you can better understand it, I think. I read all of the HP series as they came out (and even lined up to buy a book at midnight at a Kroger in Virginia--as an adult--one summer when I was attending a Children’s Literature MFA program in Roanoke!) and I enjoyed them as mystery novels set in an enticing and well-built magical world. They seem more like candy and well-created fun. Cooper and Le Guin’s works resonate on a much deeper level and provide the reader a lifetime of engagement (and they don’t need their own theme parks to do it).
The Dark is Rising series, as well as the Black Cauldron series, were among my favorites as a kid. Also I have a Jonathan Livingston Seagull tattoo on my forearm.
You had me worried there for a moment--if you'd said that Seagull was the better book I would have had my faith in humanity shattered.
I am not sure that Cooper's series is all that great though. I re-read it not long ago and I think the prophetic narrative robs the protagonists of a lot of agency; they come off as rather passive and flat as a result.
For me the superior Chosen One YA is Lloyd Alexander's Prydain books partly because the protagonist has a real arc and makes painful choices and the supporting cast have vivid personalities. (The main flaw is that the major female character doesn't get a parallel developmental story alongside the male lead when that seems tantalizingly possible.)
Sep 10, 2023·edited Sep 10, 2023Liked by John Warner
I actually read Susan Cooper's Dark is Rising sequence as a kid although I am a Zoomer! They are one of many beloved series passed on to me by my mother, who was working as a librarian during the Potter phenomenon.
Other excellent series she got me into:
-The Earthsea Cycle, Ursula K. LeGuin
-The Enchanted Forest Chronicles, Patricia C. Wrede
-everything Diana Wynne Jones, though mostly the Howl's Moving Castle trilogy, Chrestomanci, and the Magids (I was super lucky to track down a copy of the first Magids book in a used bookstore a few years ago--as it's one of Jones's 2? 3? adult novels it is no longer in print)
-Ender's Game
In return, I've been passing along the highlights from my YA years:
-the Graceling trilogy, Kristen Cashore
-the multiple series by Cinda Williams Chima
-Maggie Stiefvater's Raven Cycle
-Bone Gap by Laura Ruby
-the Illuminae trilogy by Aime Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
I own an old mass-market paperback copy of All Creatures Great and Small with the following on the back cover: "If Jonathan Livingston Seagull needed a doctor, James Herriot would be the one he'd choose..." What an artifact of the 1970s!
I have to admit that while I read the whole Dark is Rising series in my 20s, I didn't particularly get into it, while I absolutely love Harry Potter. Interesting to have people say that HP is not really fantasy--perhaps that's why I like it? On the whole fantasy tends to annoy me, or I just don't "get" it.
*Loved* this series so hard and interestingly, it was so long ago I read it I don't remember a lot of the actual action and what I loved about it, but that snowy opening has always stuck with me and is the image I get whenever anyone mentions the series.
I vividly remember writing my grandmother from camp to order her to send me the next installment in The Dark is Rising series (she did, because she was the best). I somehow no longer own them and thus suspect I gave them away to a friends' children at some point or that they disappeared in one of many moves, but I read them all many times as well.
I'm loathe to call one book better than another, abiding as I do by the every book its reader; every reader their book philosophy, but I can expound on that in my own space some day or other.
To anyone who lived through the Cold War and is looking for another (very short) series of books that remind me a bit of both Cooper and Rowling, I'll point to the work of Pamela F. Service. Winter of Magic's Return and Tomorrow's Magic are still on my shelves. (Technically they're on my kid's shelves, but I don't think they'll ever appeal to him.)
I had to read all the Potter books out loud to my son when he was little. I liked the characters and storytelling, but the prose wasn’t her strong suit.
There was a great article last year about the series in The Guardian by one of my favourite writers, Robert Macfarlane (The Old Ways, which I wish more people knew about). Thanks for spotlighting the books.
OK as a middle school teacher, I have a lot of thoughts on this:
The Dark Is Rising definitely suffers from bad cover syndrome, which means I have never had a student pick it off my shelf, despite having it there for the past 16 years. Also, that description you shared is well-written, but will immediately turn most 11-year-olds off of reading it. It signals its age, calling back to a time where a paragraph might be devoted to the setting, when there are a solid percentage of kids who have only previously read the Wimpy Kid series. They do not have the attention span to think about what *kind* of gray day it was outside.
Interestingly, I think WK, Dahl, and HP all share a certain mean streak even in their protagonists; the difference is that WK author Jeff Kinney and Dahl are aware when their characters are mean (Kinney is basically writing Curb Your Enthusiasm for kids, while Dahl delights in the meanness), where Rowling is not.
I think what people miss about HP is that it's not really a fantasy book; it's a mystery with some magic thrown in. That's why the journey to the big bad isn't the focus, even though it seems like it should feel that way (and the movies emphasize that element). Like most mysteries, it's about the characters we're bumping into along the way, and the series regulars that we need to check in with.
It also, as you pointed out, serves an extremely under-served population. The vocabulary in The Dark is Rising is WAY above Harry Potter (different measures put the difficulty about 3 "grade levels" apart). There is a relative lack of fun stories aimed at 11-to-13-year-olds that the average 11-year-old can actually understand. Mystery, Horror, and Sports books are particularly underrepresented; it makes a certain sense that a solid entry in one of those genres would take off.
Also worth mentioning is pretty much any of Diana Wynn Jones work. She’s got a mountain of incredible Ya fantasy, and even JK Rowling claimed to take inspiration from her.
I think HP is mostly about the world-building. JKR does a thoroughly good job of creating the setting, magic, creatures, language. And this is appealing to younger children. It's escapist fantasy.
I remember watching the films and having almost nothing to chew on after. My one thought was that Neville, the kid who isn't naturally rich and talented would have made the best character.
Also, what is the point of Ron Weasley? He seems to be nothing but a body that hangs around with Harry. He seems to do almost nothing useful. Sidekicks are supposed to add something, bail out the protagonist sometimes. Other than playing a game of chess, that's all I remember in the whole series.
Oh, The Dark is Rising series is fabulous. I'm too old to have read it as a child, but I read it in my forties and was entranced. Great storytelling, everlasting themes, strong characters, real jeopardy. I have copies on my shelves still and frequently recommend it to adult readers! That film of it really sucks.
This has inspired me to finally look for a complete set of The Dark is Rising, which I never finished in my youth because I couldn't find the remaining paperbacks that matched the two I already had. I got them used (with good illustrations on the cover and the title framed and set in a non-hokey font) and the publisher had long since moved on to the first round of bad covers. But I've read the two I have about half a dozen times over the years.
I am a huge Susan Cooper fan. I think I first read her when I was around 14 or 15. At the time I loved the atmosphere of the books and really enjoyed the character of Will. I identified with his strong desire to do what was right but also the bewilderment that came with taking on a quest that was so much larger than himself. But my first fantasy series that set me up as a life long fan is Earthsea books by Ursula Le Guin. I read and re-read every book in that cycle (as she grew the series over decades, I think). It made me a life-long Le Guin fan, only later did I discover her incredible science fiction. Reflecting on her comment about Rowling’s work being mean-spirited, if you set the context of that comment using her Earthsea themes and characters like Ged, Tenar and Therru, you can better understand it, I think. I read all of the HP series as they came out (and even lined up to buy a book at midnight at a Kroger in Virginia--as an adult--one summer when I was attending a Children’s Literature MFA program in Roanoke!) and I enjoyed them as mystery novels set in an enticing and well-built magical world. They seem more like candy and well-created fun. Cooper and Le Guin’s works resonate on a much deeper level and provide the reader a lifetime of engagement (and they don’t need their own theme parks to do it).
The Dark is Rising series, as well as the Black Cauldron series, were among my favorites as a kid. Also I have a Jonathan Livingston Seagull tattoo on my forearm.
You had me worried there for a moment--if you'd said that Seagull was the better book I would have had my faith in humanity shattered.
I am not sure that Cooper's series is all that great though. I re-read it not long ago and I think the prophetic narrative robs the protagonists of a lot of agency; they come off as rather passive and flat as a result.
For me the superior Chosen One YA is Lloyd Alexander's Prydain books partly because the protagonist has a real arc and makes painful choices and the supporting cast have vivid personalities. (The main flaw is that the major female character doesn't get a parallel developmental story alongside the male lead when that seems tantalizingly possible.)
I actually read Susan Cooper's Dark is Rising sequence as a kid although I am a Zoomer! They are one of many beloved series passed on to me by my mother, who was working as a librarian during the Potter phenomenon.
Other excellent series she got me into:
-The Earthsea Cycle, Ursula K. LeGuin
-The Enchanted Forest Chronicles, Patricia C. Wrede
-everything Diana Wynne Jones, though mostly the Howl's Moving Castle trilogy, Chrestomanci, and the Magids (I was super lucky to track down a copy of the first Magids book in a used bookstore a few years ago--as it's one of Jones's 2? 3? adult novels it is no longer in print)
-Ender's Game
In return, I've been passing along the highlights from my YA years:
-the Graceling trilogy, Kristen Cashore
-the multiple series by Cinda Williams Chima
-Maggie Stiefvater's Raven Cycle
-Bone Gap by Laura Ruby
-the Illuminae trilogy by Aime Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
Thanks mom <3
I own an old mass-market paperback copy of All Creatures Great and Small with the following on the back cover: "If Jonathan Livingston Seagull needed a doctor, James Herriot would be the one he'd choose..." What an artifact of the 1970s!
I have to admit that while I read the whole Dark is Rising series in my 20s, I didn't particularly get into it, while I absolutely love Harry Potter. Interesting to have people say that HP is not really fantasy--perhaps that's why I like it? On the whole fantasy tends to annoy me, or I just don't "get" it.
*Loved* this series so hard and interestingly, it was so long ago I read it I don't remember a lot of the actual action and what I loved about it, but that snowy opening has always stuck with me and is the image I get whenever anyone mentions the series.
I vividly remember writing my grandmother from camp to order her to send me the next installment in The Dark is Rising series (she did, because she was the best). I somehow no longer own them and thus suspect I gave them away to a friends' children at some point or that they disappeared in one of many moves, but I read them all many times as well.
I'm loathe to call one book better than another, abiding as I do by the every book its reader; every reader their book philosophy, but I can expound on that in my own space some day or other.
To anyone who lived through the Cold War and is looking for another (very short) series of books that remind me a bit of both Cooper and Rowling, I'll point to the work of Pamela F. Service. Winter of Magic's Return and Tomorrow's Magic are still on my shelves. (Technically they're on my kid's shelves, but I don't think they'll ever appeal to him.)
for Adults I think “The Eight” by Kettering Neville is a Great magic, fantasy and quest story
Katherine, Not Kettering