Kids into books: Under the Mountain

This weeks title: Under the Mountain

Author: Maurice Gee

Illustrator: v8

Publisher: Puffin, $12.95

Age Group: 8-13 years



A searching policeman crashed by, twenty metres down the bank. His torch lit the trunks of trees. Further on he stopped to call their names. Deep, deep in their sleep, they heard no sound.

The policeman went on, calling now and then to the searchers up and down the hill from him. A short while later they came together in a clearing by a stream.

'Nothing?'

'Nothing.'

'They'll never survive.'

'Look,' the policeman cried.

A light like a flame was moving in the trees, so bright it made them hide their eyes. It floated high above the ground turning like a mist through the trunks.

'What is it?' They ran over the clearing, but as they ran it vanished, and they stood bewildered in the weak glow of their torches.

In that same instant, deep back in the bush, the light came down beside Rachel and Theo Matheson. It covered them like a blanket, flowed round and under them, soft and honey-coloured, drew down and dulled itself. Warmth flowed into the limbs of the sleeping children.


Tomorrow: A visit in their sleep