The main character, a boy who has just turned eleven, is beginning to aquire some magical talents. A great read for readers of the Harry Potter or Eragon fantasy series which was awarded the 1974 Newbery Honor Award, though the story is still contemporary today.

This book is filled with alusions to New Age, Wikin, and is an affront (or should be) to Christians.

On his eleventh birthday, a young boy discovers that he belongs to an ancient group of powerful beings. He is instructed in magical arts, and gets caught up in the struggle between forces of good and evil. Sound familiar? The pros of this book and series. The Dark is Rising sequence is wonderfully well-written. Some of the younger readers have complained about the story being difficult to understand, but older readers will enjoy the complex and well-planned story. Will is a positive character who loves his family, accepts responsibility, and learns from his mistakes. The cons: the story is infused with British paganism. Though it's interesting to read a fantasy based on the English mytho-historical traditions, the series presents these myths and practices as valid beliefs that just fell out of vogue. Though the series isn't blatantly anti-Christian, occultism is sometimes mentioned positively, and there is a pervasive sense that the ancient beliefs are somehow superior to the Christian faith, and servants of the Dark often hide behind a religious guise.

This book had way too much violence, commercialism, and bevoiarl issues. I would not reccomend this book to any child under 13.

Great book, rubbish movie. This one is the best of the series, a must read for young kids who are fans of fantasy and adventure.

It is a shame that some schools require this book to be read, it is hand down the worst book I've ever read. It is hard to follow confusing and boring, I can't read this book for more than an hour without falling asleep, crying,or sometimes both. Bottom line- Don't read it ever.

so what this is not a must read book the only thing good about it is that a movie came out about it. This book is a waste of time and i'm surprised that you liked it. This book had a terrible plot, it was hard to understand, and the chapters were confusing. This book is not a must read book and I do not recommend it for anybody unless you have to read it.

uwuwu I agree with you, this is a bad book the story line is hard to follow the characters a weird and the whole book is very hard to understand. I also agree with that this book is not appropriate for children. This book is violent and its hard to believe that it won an award that this book is made for kids of the age 13 .

I agree with you this book is hard to understand. The whole book is confusing and I don't understand the plot and what is happening. I had to constantly re-read the first chapter just to sort of understand what is happening. This book is just to hard to understand and I completely agree with you.

I enjoyed this book, but it was at times hard to understand. It had a lot of fantasy, though. I enjoyed the film more.

um...this book was okay...it was really confusing though. i only read it cus i had to for school and i would have never picked it up otherwise. the chapters are really long and i always had a straying mind when reading this book. if you like fantasy, this is and okay book, but if you dont DO NOT READ THIS BOOOK UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES!!!...unless you have to for school!!! hehe

this book has an amazing plot and i loved it sooooooo much. it is really a must read!

I loved it. It has just the right amount of everythin'. Some scary parts, some really funny parts, and some complicated parts. The only problem with it is that you have to read the whole series to understand everything and some people aren't ready to do that much reading.

I found this book just so bad the only reason i read it was because I read it for school.