Susan Cooper is one of our most distinguished children's book authors. The Grey King, part of her five-book sequence, The Dark Is Rising, won the Newbery Medal. The Dark Is Rising, the first book in the sequence, was the only Newbery Honor Book of its publication year. Two other books in the sequence were runners-up for Britain's Carnegie Medal. Susan Cooper's novel, King of Shadows, was awarded a Boston Globe -- Horn Book Honor.

Born in England, Susan Cooper was a reporter and feature writer for the London Sunday Times before coming to live in the United States. Her television screenplays for adults have received two Writers Guild Awards and two Emmy nominations.