“Trapped in the Tunnel” by Katrina Hoover Lee

Young teens Terry, Gary, and Larry Fitzpatrick live with their parents on Brady Street in a small town in Indiana. The streets rather isolated; it’s near the river the boys love and has only two neighbors, an abandoned house next door and a home owned by “the German woman” Tina down the street. It’s early summer 1987, and the three boys find all kinds of things to keep them occupied.  

The boys have heard stories of how their area supposedly was part of the Underground Railroad before and during the Civil War. But it’s only when the local antiques dealer gives them an old map that their imaginations take flight. It appears that there are tunnels connecting the houses on their street, secret rooms in the basements, and all manner of secret doors.

 

Katrina Hoover Lee

They hunt for clues and soon begin to find them, including in their own basement and in the abandoned house next door. But things take a turn for the really exciting, and dangerous, when they’re asked to care for Tina’s dog while she’s away. 

 

In Trapped in the Tunnel, Katrina Hoover Lee tells the boys’ story. She combines strong Christian elements along with the things young teens can do to keep themselves occupied, with a good dose of mystery and mounting tension. The targeted age group for the series is roughly 8 to 13. And this is the  time before personal computers, mobile phones, iPads, and the worldwide web, so the book is a treat for those of us adults who can remember those ancient times.

 

Lee has published seven books in the Brady Street Boys 1980s Adventure Series, of which Trapped in the Tunnel is the first. She’s also published several other books, both fiction and non-diction. The Brady Street Boys originated as stories she told her brother, growing up on a Mennonite farm. She lives with her family in Elkhart, Indiana. 

 

Some Monday Readings

 

“My Letters! All Dead Paper,” poem by Elizabeth Barrett Browning – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

The False Promise of Device-Based Education – Amy Tyson at After Babel.

 

Democracy in America: an introduction – Roger Kimball at The New Criterion.

 

Stark Truth: All the King’s Terrible Choices – Joel Miller at Miller’s Book Review.