The first volume of Susan Cooper's brilliant and absorbing fantasy
series, The Dark Is Rising.
On holiday in Cornwall, the three Drew children discover an ancient map
in the attic of the house that they are staying in. They know
immediately that it is special. It is even more than that -- the key to
finding a grail, a source of power to fight the forces of evil known as
the Dark. And in searching for it themselves, the Drews put their very
lives in peril.