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


They smiled and murmured. All night they slept as though in their beds at home. They dreamed happy dreams. The light lay still and warm over them, murmuring like a hive of bees.

Greyness came through the black night of the bush. Trucks and cars roared into the Matheson farm. Policemen, farmers, gathered for a second day of the search. Dogs barked. A helicopter chattered down the valley from the town.

In the bush the light in the fern patch stirred, concentrated itself. Suddenly it vanished. An old man stood beside the sleeping children. He knelt and touched their faces. 'Twins,' he murmured, 'twins.'

He touched their red hair. 'Yes, yes, our colour.' He looked into their minds. 'And with the gift. They will be the ones.' He knelt for a long time, watching them. 'But will they be grown in time?'

The twins stretched, woke, sat up. They stared at him.

'You are safe, children,' he said. 'Someone will come for you soon and take you home.'

They stared.