> Skip to content
  • Published: 3 August 2015
  • ISBN: 9781782954798
  • Imprint: Red Fox
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 192
  • RRP: $24.99

Dawn of Fear




A story of friendship and adventure set in World War II, from award-winning author Susan Cooper.

Sirens are blaring. Families huddle in bomb shelters. A nearby city is in flames.

For Derek and his friends, night-time air raids are a normal part of everyday life. When a particularly violent raid closes their school for a few days, the boys use the time to complete construction of their secret camp. But to their horror, their refuge is savagely attacked by a rival neighbourhood gang. And then, after one night filled with bombing, the war changes his world forever.

  • Published: 3 August 2015
  • ISBN: 9781782954798
  • Imprint: Red Fox
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 192
  • RRP: $24.99

About the author

Susan Cooper

Susan Cooper was born in Buckinghamshire, read English at Oxford and began her career as a reporter and feature-writer for the Sunday Times. She then married an American and moved to the United States. Her sequence of fantasy novels for young adults, The Dark Is Rising, has won numerous international awards, including the Newbery Medal, and has been translated into eleven languages. She has written a number of other books for children and adults, a Broadway play, and several films for television and the cinema. She has two children and lives in Fairfield, Connecticut. Susan is married to the Canadian actor Hume Cronyn.

Also by Susan Cooper

See all

Praise for Dawn of Fear

Remarkable . . . A moving chronicle of despair and of courage.

Publishers Weekly

An uncommon kind of war story

The Horn Book

Well-written . . . Doesn't shy from realistic facts and emotions

The New York Times