Susan Cooper

On his eleventh birthday, Will Stanton discovers that he is the last of the Old Ones, destined to seek the six magical Signs that will enable the Old Ones to triumph over the evil forces of the Dark.

In the Welsh hills Will Stanton, youngest of the immortal Old Ones, joins forces with Merriman, Bran, and the mortal Drew children in a quest through space and time against the powers of evil known as the Dark.

A young Welsh boy is rewarded for his beautiful harp playing with a silver cow, the gift of the magic people living in the lake. The cow makes his family rich but when his father becomes greedy the magic people take their revenge.

At the end of a winter-long journey into manhood, Little Hawk returns to find his village decimated by a white man's plague and soon, despite a fresh start, Little Hawk dies violently but his spirit remains trapped, seeing how his world changes.

"Meek little Mole, wilful Ratty, Badger the perennial bachelor, and petulant, boastful Toad: over one hundred years since their first appearance in 1908, they've become emblematic archetypes of eccentricity, folly and friendship. And their misadventures - in gypsy caravans, stolen sports cars, and their beloved Wild Wood - continue to capture readers' imaginations and warm their hearts long after they grow up. Begun as a series of letters from Kenneth...

"The Shortest Day captures the magic behind the returning of seasonal light, the yearning for rituals that connect us with generations that have gone before -- and the hope for peace that we carry into the future." --from dust jacket.

Alternating chapters follow the mysterious connection between a homesick English girl living in present-day America and an eleven-year-old boy serving in the British Royal Navy in 1803, aboard the H.M.S. Victory, commanded by Admiral Horatio Nelson.

When her son asks her to move to the city, an elderly woman is torn between his wishes and her many memories of sharing country life with her late husband.