Adventure, Anyone?

Two novels I’ve read recently fall under the adventure umbrella and so I’ll briefly review them together.

Leepike Ridge by N.D.Wilson is the story of Thomas who lives with his mom on the edge of a cliff next to Leepike Ridge. When his mom has a new refrigerator delivered, he uses the packing foam as a raft and is sucked underground. There his discoveries are many- corpses, a tomb, a treasure and an old man living on crawdads whom he finds is a long-lost friend of his dad. There they together face the possibility of no return and together determine to find a way out. In the meantime, his mom is dealing with the criminals who want the treasure for themselves. Fast-paced, this will meet the need for adventure for many of our boys in particular from age 10 and up.

Although Night of the Howling Dogs by Graham Salisbury starts off more slowly, it too turns into a battle for survival. Dylan’s Scout group camps on an ancient lava flow beneath a volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii. At first, the focus is more on the interaction among the boys, in particular, Dylan and Louie, who appears to be out to get him. But then the unthinkable happens as they are faced with first a small tremor and then a huge earthquake. The description of how this might have felt is riveting as you begin to feel the heaving earth and the fear associated with it. Now it is up to Dylan and Louie to hike out to find help for the other wounded. Author of Under the Blood-Red Sun, this novel might take a little more perseverance for readers at the beginning but they will soon be caught up in the intense drama.

Here is a more in-depth review.