Greenwitch (The Dark Is Rising, Book #3)

by Susan Cooper

Ebook, 2010

Status

Available

Local notes

PB Coo

Barcode

1258

Publication

Margaret K. McElderry Books (2010), 163 pages, $7.99

Description

Jane's invitation to witness the making of the Greenwitch begins a series of sinister events in which she and her two brothers help the Old Ones recover the grail stolen by the Dark.

Language

Original publication date

1974

User reviews

LibraryThing member sirfurboy
Third in "The Dark is Rising" series, this book sees the meeting up of the three children from "Over Sea and Under Stone" with Will Stanton from "The Dark is Rising".

The grail that the children found in a cave in Trewissick, South Cornwall, has been stolen by an agent of the Dark, and Merriman
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enlists the help of the Drew children once again. Only this time the children are surprised and shocked when Merriman arrives with another boy - Will Stanton. That is surely going to be a problem, they think.

Susan Cooper writes this so well. The line between super human Old One and 11 year old boy is so perfectly walked. Each character develops nicely in this book, but especially Jane.

I loved this book as a child. The interactions between families and friends, and the stumbling move from antipathy to friendship between the Drew children and Will Stanton all stand out, along with flashes of humour and an exciting and mysterious tale, cunningly written.

As an adult reader this remains an important and enjoyable book in probably my all time favourite series. Definitely strongly recommended.
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LibraryThing member MusicMom41
This short book, The 3rd entry in "The Dark Is Rising" series, features both the Drew children and Will Stanton as they endeavor to redeem the scroll that in the first book Barney threw into the sea to avoid the Dark getting it. The scroll is needed to decipher the message on the grail. Another
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plot twist is that the grail has been stolen from the museum that was guarding it—while it was on display. (You would think that the Old Ones could think of a safer way to keep it until they need it! –one of many plot holes in this series. If my son who gave me this set of books was unhappy with the “plot holes” he found in the Harry Potter series I think he had better avoid this series altogether.) The story was interesting but again, the Drew children sometimes detracted from the story. Also, Cooper does not seem concerned with developing the characters of the children so they seem to be more deus ex machine to move the plot along rather than real characters. However, again I found the story interesting and the Greenwitch story somewhat moving. My other son, who read the series last year, says that this book is a bridge to the last two. This is now a series I would recommend to middle school children who are good readers and interested in fantasy.
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LibraryThing member RebeccaAnn
When the grail the Drew children found is stolen by the Dark, Simon, Jane, and Barney team up with their Uncle Merry and Will Stanton to get it back. But what is this mysterious Greenwitch ceremony and the magical creature, smelling of hawthorne and the sea, that begins to haunt Jane's dreams?

This
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is by far my favorite book of the series so far. I'm not a huge fan of Will Stanton but I love the Drew children and in this book, the interaction between Will and the Drews made Will's character very bearable for me. I think he's a much better character when he's not the sole focus of the narrative. Cooper also did a marvelous job of making him both an Old One and a young boy. There were instances when he was just charming and fun to read about and of course, the sibling interactions between Simon, Jane and Barney are never dull. Cooper's ability to develop relationships between her characters is really astounding in these books.

My only real beef with the series in general is that in so many scenes, there could have been much more description, and many could have been extended. However, one must remember that she was in fact writing this for the young adult audience and, though some may disagree with me, young teenagers and older tweens do tend to have shorter attention spans. I enjoy these books for what they are: good juvenile escapist fiction.

Highly recommended.
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LibraryThing member bookworm12
read, 2010 100 book challenge, young adult, November
LibraryThing member saroz
In this, the third book of the Dark is Rising cycle, Susan Cooper merges the world of that eponymous novel and her earlier children's mystery, Over Sea, Under Stone. To a large degree, in fact, it feels as if that's the main motivation for the book. At times, it's a bit of an uncomfortable
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collaboration; Greenwitch has the lighter, younger reader-friendly narrative voice of Stone, with the mysticism and occasional high speech of Dark. The result comes off, at times, like a Scooby Doo mystery with occasional scenes written by Alan Garner. That's not to say it's a bad book - not at all. There's some wonderful imagery here, and the Greenwitch herself is a powerful and mysterious visual symbol. It doesn't have the startling otherworldliness of The Dark is Rising, though, and what it adds to the mythos of Cooper's reality feels as if it's designed for this book only, to be quickly disposed of once its purpose is served, instead of furthering and widening the scope of the fight between the Light and the Dark. (It's a little telling that, at the midst of a conflict between Will, his friends, and the an agent of the Dark, the new and powerful forces Cooper introduces are totally ambivalent to the ongoing struggle outside their own primal interests.) The whole work is simply more superficial than its predecessor, with a story that's only about half as long. An educated guess would suggest that Cooper is setting her pieces in place for much deeper and more complicated adventures in the final two books of the cycle. As such, Greenwitch is probably a necessary step in reconciling two earlier works of very, very different tones, but it's definitely a "middle book" and doesn't stand especially well as a standalone read.
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LibraryThing member SandyAMcPherson
A mystical story that focuses on Jane more than the her brothers or Will Stanton. Invokes the ancient beliefs of the Cornish Greenwitch, which is a deliciously feminist entity. This is my favourite book in the series.
LibraryThing member StormRaven
Greenwitch is the third book in Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising sequence. It is an odd book in some ways, and is both the shortest, and in my opinion, the weakest book in the series. The book is so short, in some ways, that it feels like it should have just been part of one of the other four
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books in the series. The book takes place between The Dark Is Rising and The Grey King, bringing Will Stanton and the Drew children together for the first time. The story revolves around a local folk festival in Cornwall, and the decisions made by Jane Drew.

As the book focuses on Jane Drew, and a folk festival that only women can participate in, this is the only book in the series that is told primarily from the perspective of a female character. Consequently, the fact that the folk festival is so obscure, and the book is so short is somewhat disappointing. Whereas the other books in the series are full of references to the myths and legends of the British Isles and have interesting storylines, this book seems to be very thin in comparison. The central myth dealt with in the book is, when you really look at it, quite small, especially since it is surrounded by the key elements of Arthurian, English, and Welsh national mythology. Even though the story is short, it doesn't feel rushed, just short, like there just wasn't much to say, and Jane just didn't have anything more to offer as a character.

Of all the books in the series, this one left me feeling the most disappointed. I felt like Cooper should have been able to give a more extensive story, but just couldn't come up anything more than a brief, linear tale to fill the gap. Though the writing is good, the plot is somewhat predictable and not really all that interesting. Fortunately, it is short, and as a bridge between the first half of the series and the second, it serves decently.
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LibraryThing member PhoebeReading
Probably the weakest of the Dark is Rising Sequence so far. Cooper's prose remains lovely and strong, and it's nice to see some character development--and a little less focus on the boys--in Jane's storyline. However, the marriage between the Drews' story and Will's is, so far, an awkward one. The
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characterization of Merrimen as both lovable "Gumerry" and an Old One just feels . . . weird, and like the Drews boys, I found Will's solemn, somewhat flat presence grating, especially in contrast to the more faceted and boisterous Drews children. His strength in The Dark Is Rising was his realistic doubt and uncertainty, and here he's a cipher--frustrating! This is undoubtedly a key stepping stone in the series, but it wouldn't stand well on its own.
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LibraryThing member Yoshikawa
I found that Greenwitch targeted the female audience, but it was still a good read.
LibraryThing member reannon
3rd book in the Dark is Rising series. Goodk, but not as good as the 2nd, the Dark is Rising.
LibraryThing member Othemts
Everyone comes together for the third of the “Dark is Rising” books, the Drews, Will Stanton, and Merriman. Once again they seek the grail, stolen by the Dark, and the manuscript that helps interpret the grail’s lettering. Will has changed in this book, less of a boy, and more set in his ways
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as an Old One. This is particularly noticeable when Will and Merriman with little consultation leap off the cliff together, an action so shocking that Captain Toms has to make the Drews lose their memories of it. But more interesting in this book is the central role played by Jane, an ordinary girl, who does extraordinary things. It is her sympathy for the Greenwitch that saves Light, although the way she gets the manuscript in a dream and wakes up with seaweed in the bed is rather cheesy. Still it all plays into my admiration of intelligent female characters (see Hermione Granger). I also really like the tradition of the Greenwitch as detailed in the book and the way folk traditions “come to life.”
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LibraryThing member readafew
This book brings the Drew kids and Will Stanton all together. The grail has been stolen and they need to try and get it back. This all happens at a little sea side village where they are celebrating spring and making a Greenwich to through into the sea for good luck.

This is a neat set of books for
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young adults/Middle school kids. I read them when I was in Middle school and found them a little spooky, having reread them as an adult I found them an easy read and definitely written for younger readers. Great books to get younger readers interested in reading.
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LibraryThing member stubbyfingers
While many of the young adult fantasy series out there (Harry Potter, His Dark Materials, etc.) are perfectly readable and enjoyable for adults, this series is probably not one of them. It tends to be a bit too simplistic with the problems too easily solved. This is the third book in "The Dark is
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Rising" sequence and brings together characters from the first two books. One of the characters is clearly in control of the situation, not needing to work it solving the problems at all and the other three are just stumbling around blindly, never understanding what's happening at all. The climax comes and goes before you know it--very simplistic. I wouldn't recommend this as a serious read for adults.
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LibraryThing member kraaivrouw
In the third book of the series, the Drew kids and Will Stanton team up (not always happily) to find the stolen grail and figure out what's going wrong with the Greenwitch.

This book is in many ways Jane Drew's story. It is her participation in the Greenwitch ceremony and her wish for the
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Greenwitch's happiness that inform the events that transpire.

A wonderful exploration of the Greenwitch mythos seamlessly woven into the story of the battle of Light and Dark that Cooper is telling. This book both builds on the other two and makes you want to know what happens next.
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LibraryThing member t1bclasslibrary
In the third book in the Sequence, Simon, Jane, and Barney meet up with Will, and of course the mysterious Merry in order to recover the piece that fell from the grail as well as the grail itself. The four of them must work together with the siblings not trusting Will, and the Greenwitch playing a
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role. In the end it is an act of Jane's that makes the difference.
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LibraryThing member overthemoon
The Drew children, who found an inscribed golden cup they refer to as the grail in Over Sea, Under Stone, meet Will Stanton from The Dark is Rising, thanks to their mutual connection Uncle Merry. They all spend a holiday together in a cottage in Trewissick, southern, Cornwall, at the time of a
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special ceremony where a large female figure of branches, made during the night by the village women, is thrown into the sea the next morning by the men. Endowed with unsuspected supernatural powers, the Greenwitch is instrumental (thanks to a wish made by the Drew girl, Jane) in retrieving the parchment that was lost in the deeps in OS,US. This parchment is essential in deciphering the message on the grail, which, at the beginning of the story, was stolen from the museum where it was kept. All very adventuresome and fast-moving, like the other stories, but somewhat shorter, more mystical, pagan and at times unsettling. This edition has an introduction by the author and is sensitively illustrated with paintings that demand a lot of inspection as they contain more than meets the eye.
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LibraryThing member riverwillow
The third book in the sequence and the one that finally unites the main protagonists of the first two books, the Drewe siblings and the last of the old ones, Will Stanton, as they work with Merriman Lyon try to recover the Grail which has been stolen from the British Museum. The relationship
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between the 4 children is at the heart of the book. I love the relationship between the Drewe siblings, which feels very real, and the resentment and mistrust that Simon and Barney feel towards Will as an interloper. It's particularly lovely that Jane is the focus of the plot as she develops a bond with the Greenwitch and slowly becomes close to Will. In The Dark is Rising Will's journey was to understand and achieve his potential as an Old One and now we really get and understanding just what it means for him to be the last of the Old Ones as well as an 11 year old boy when Jane asks him 'You aren't quite like the rest of us, are you?'. Wonderful and I'm really looking forward to the next book in the sequence.
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LibraryThing member booksandwine
This book had more Jane, the Drew children and Will Stanton finally meet, and the Drew boys don't really like Will. All in all this was an okay read. I probably would have devoured it faster if I was 11 or 12, but I'm 21.
LibraryThing member bell7
The grail has been stolen. Simon, Jane, and Barney Drew, who found the grail in the first place, know it must have something to do with the Dark. Their Great Uncle Merry confirms this for them, and says that they will need to help, but he can't tell them much more like that. Meanwhile, Will
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Stanton's uncle visits from America and offers to take him with him to Cornwall. The three Drews are a little leery of sharing their vacation, and their great-uncle, with Will, but all four children are going to have to find a way to work together to keep the grail out of the hands of the Dark.

It's been a few years since I read Over Sea, Under Stone and The Dark is Rising, but I remembered enough about the stories and the characters to follow along in this one. Greenwitch has some interesting elements, but it's a fairly straightforward story with little surprises for a well-seasoned fantasy reader. As the middle book in the series, it doesn't stand on its own well - it brings together characters from the first two books, and sets up the next one. Perhaps because I'm coming to these books for the first time as an adult, I'm simply not falling in love with it. I will continue reading - I'm especially interested in reading the Newbery Medal winner, The Grey King - but at this point, I wouldn't plan on rereading any of the titles.
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LibraryThing member briannad84
One of my favorite book series!
LibraryThing member callmecayce
The third book in the Dark is Rising series. In this, the two worlds of the previous novels collide. Barney, Jane and Simon finally meet Will, and it's a funny and adorable situation. Jane continues to be a tough/strong character and I love that about Susan Cooper's writing. I liked this book
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because it was fast-paced, but gave us a lot of tiny bits of character development. I loved Jane's interactions with the Greenwitch and her perceptiveness when it came to Will. I like that while Simon and Barney are initially annoyed by Will's presence, they end up getting along with him. I also loved the character of the Greenwitch, she's a great fantastical character. I love this series, even as an adult.
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LibraryThing member tjsjohanna
This story brings together the characters from the first and second books, united to recover the grail and continue their fight against the dark. The conflict between the boys was interesting, particularly how it seemed to resolve itself in the tension of their battle. I liked the character of the
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Greenwitch quite a lot!
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LibraryThing member danbarrett
Part of what is probably my favorite YA series of all time, and, in my opinion, one of the best fantasy series of all time. I can't even tell you how much I loved these books. That said, this was probably the one I enjoyed the least, simply because I was more attached to the other sets of
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characters than I was the siblings dealt with here. Still, better than most other books.
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LibraryThing member seph
I don't know how I've missed The Dark Is Rising sequence all these years, but these books are very enjoyable and suspenseful reads, especially for someone like me who likes Arthurian and mystical fantasy. Much like Jane, I felt a compassionate and loving awe for the Greenwitch. And again, as in the
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other books, this story is filled with nail-biting suspense and vivid imagery that is both compelling and delightfully scary.
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LibraryThing member BrainFireBob
The third installment of the Dark is Rising series, and the direct sequel to Over Sea, Under Stone and The Dark is Rising, sees both the Drew children and Will Stanton on the Welsh coast, seeking the scroll that was lost during the Drew children's first outing that can decode the cypher on the
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Grail.

It has come into the possession of the Greenwitch, a British folk tradition wicker-woman tossed each year into the sea since time immemorial- the Greenwitch is a creature of the Wild Magic, as is her mother, Tethys- the Light, the High, the Dark, and the Wild being the major powers in Cooper's mythology. Who will convince the Greenwitch to give up her prize, and decode the mystery of the Grail prophecy?

This is my least favorite entry in this series. It just never spoke to me. The writing is up to Cooper's usual standards, and it really does read like a cross of the first two entries in the series- but somehow I didn't connect with it. There is a strong emphasis on feminine connection in this book, as well- although it is not a feminist work.

It is a fine book, and it can be read as a stand-alone with little hiccup. It just didn't turn me on like the other four entries did.
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Pages

163

Rating

½ (1065 ratings; 3.9)
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