A Long Walk to Water

Link to video about the book

Book trailer

Video on the Lost Boys of the Sudan. There is some disturbing images

March Book: The Chronicles of Harris Burdick

We're doing something a little different in March: The Chronicles of Harris Burdick is a collection of fourteen short stories by different well known writers. Each story accompanies an illustration (and caption) by a mysterious man known as Harris Burdick.

When we meet in March, be prepared to answer the following questions:

Which story did you like best?
Which story did you like least?
Which story best matched it's illustration?
Which story least matched it's illustration?
Which story was the creepiest?
Which story was the happiest?
Are you interested in reading more by one of the authors in this book?

Over Sea: Discussion Questions

Over Sea, Under Stone: Discussion Questions

1. The knights of King Arthur lived by strict codes of ethics. What rules do the Drew children follow?

2. What power does Hastings have over his followers? Is Mrs.Palk one of his followers?

3. Do you think this book would have been different if it had been written in 2013 instead of 1965? If yes, then it what ways would it have been different?

4. How frightening was the villain in the story? What did Cooper do to make Hastings seem evil?

5. What is meant by the sentence, "The battle that is never won, but is never totally lost"?

6. Early in the book, great-uncle Merry says that "magic is only a word". Do you agree? Are there things that happen in the story that seem magical?

7. Do the Drew children learn some thing by the end of the book? Did they change?

8. Did this story remind you of other books you have read or movies you have seen?  

Furry dance

The Trewissick "Floral Dance" is said to be the same as the Helston Furry Dance.

Click Here to see and hear the Helston Furry Dance.

Over Sea: The Dark is Rising Series

When Susan Cooper wrote Over Sea, Under Stone she wasn't sure if she wanted to carry it on as a series. She left the ending open to future books, and ended up writing five books in what has come to be known as The Dark is Rising sequence. They are:

Over sea, Under Stone
The Dark is Rising
Greenwitch
The Grey King
Silver on the Tree

The second book book was made into a movie in 2007, but Susan Cooper war reported to be disappointed that the movie bore little resemblance to her novel.

Movie Trailer "The Dark is Rising"

Over Sea: About the Author

Susan Cooper was born May 23, 1935 in Burnham, Buckinghamshire, England.

Susan Cooper started to write a lot during WWII, because it helped her to escape from everything going on around her. She later went to school at the University of Oxford in England. Susan writes fantasy, because when she was three years old she was surrounded by fairy tales, myths and folklore in England and she enjoyed all the stories.

Before writing her novels, Susan was a reporter for The Sunday Times in London. The reason Susan moved to America is because she married an American. In America, she felt homesick and started reading a lot more about Britain and it's history and stories. Then she started to get many ideas for the books. Most of her books take place in real British locations.

Source: http://susancooper.weebly.com/index.html

I have found a video interview with Susan Cooper.

Over Sea: Just where is Trewissick?

Over Sea, Under Stone is set in a fictional town, Trewissick. When Susan Cooper was a child she used to take summer vactions in Mevagissey - a Cornish coastal town. Mevagissey is close to the real town of St. Austell, which is mentioned in the book as being close to Trewissick.

Below is a map of England, which to me kind of looks like a bagpipe without all the pipes sticking out the top. Cornwall is that pointy bit down in the bottom left. If England was a bagpipe, Cornwall would be the bit you blow in. 

 

So here is a map of Cornwall. Mevagissy (Trewissick) is mid way along the south shore:

 

 

So now you know!