Author Susan Cooper
AR Points 9.0
Difficulty Level 6.2
# Pages 165
ISBN 0-590-43317-2
Publisher Scholastic Inc. 1990
1st Line On the day of the dead, when the year too dies, must the youngest open the oldest hills, through the door of the birds where the breeze breaks.
Personal Review
What an amazing story. I absolutely loved the characters and how they are so familiar to me. At times I remember events in my own life as I read this book. It even resonates true with my own heritage as a member of my family is a noble cousin named Johnny Rowlands. I was impressed to find such a familiarity in this book. It makes me proud of my heritage, even if the character and my cousin are not the same.
It took me a while to read this, not because it was difficult, but because I only dedicated a half hour to reading each day for the past week or so. Once I hit the second part of the book though...I was compelled to continue up to an hour at a time. Excellent stuff.
Though the plot echoes familiarity in good vs evil plot lines, there is enough suspense and mystery that readers will not know what happens next. It really keeps your interest in an incredible grip and begs to be shared.
Teacher's Review
As an educator there is a lot of value in this book, and presumably the entire series. most notably is the Newbery Medal the book won in 1975. The National Counsel of Teachers of English also awarded it a Notable Childrens Book in Language Arts. It has also been recognized by the Carnegie as an excellent book.
Beyond that, the book is full of challenging and powerful vocabulary.
Cutlurally it ties well with Arthurian legend, and Welsh history.
The book teaches character such as respect, kindness, patience, love, honesty, and loyalty.
It teaches readers to pronounce Welsh language correctly.
Literary and poetic devices are sprinkled throughout including foreshadowing, imagery, simile, metaphor, irony, onomatopoeia, personificaton, alliteration, symbolism, and suspense.
The author does an amazing job of crafting great fiction. Characters, setting, world-building, plot, conflict, and theme are all well developed and provide excellent examples for young authors.
Suggested Activities
I would probably be inclined to guide the students in creating their own warestones. Purchasing decorative rounded quartz from a garden center, students can paint or decorate their warestones with shapes, symbols and ideas which represent them. Then the stones should be painted with a thin transluscent layer of white or glow in the dark paint. These then should be sealed and displayed in various places in the classroom until the book is finished. When finished, the students should take their warestones home.
I would also be inclined to find a harp similar to the one in the book and ask a performer to play something on it...this may be a really hard task since most public school band departments do not include stringed instruments.
I also believe images of Welsh country and the hills mentioned by Cooper should be shared...through bookmarks, photos, slide shows, and bulletin boards.
Students should also be able to add 25+ words to their word lists from this book. Examples of litarary devices should also be collected from this book as they are astounding samples.
A class timeline or sequence chain could be made as the book is read.
Summarize the book and explain the importance of one of the following symbols in your summary: the Welsh hills, the warestone, Bran's appearance, Cadvall's death, the light and dark, or Will's illness.
BookCrossing:
Completed June 19, 2011. Excellent book for Father's Day.
