David Wiseman

I think I got this book as a child at the gift shop of an old copper mine in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. That's very appropriate since the same people who mined copper in those mines also mined copper in Cornwall where this book is set.

I remember being very gripped by the imagery of this book and Matthew's adventure underground. The cover art on this edition (paperback from 1981 or 1990) is also great and it sets the right atmosphere. However, rereading it as an adult, there is a lot of meandering buildup and his adventure is almost over before it begins. Maybe I combined it with Tom Sawyer's adventure underground ... but I haven't read that book in a while either. Maybe that, too, was short and quickly-resolved. I gave this an extra star because it was written for a younger audience and because at the time it was good enough for me to remember 25 years later.… (mer)

A quick reread because J is into tin mines at the moment, and I remembered I had a creepy kids book about tin mines. I wasn't sure if I remembered _liking_ it…

It's dated a bit - the world is very last century, as the protagonist Matthew gets the occasional clout from his dad, gets called by his surname at school, gets into fights (but only to defend other kids) and runs round the village stealing cakes from his mum as he goes. He's a normal, likable lad who is nothing special (although in the gaps in the story he slowly becomes part of the rugby team and appreciated by his history teacher) who one day becomes… haunted is not really the right word for this strange not-quite-a-ghost story, but there isn't a better one. He becomes obsessed with the tombstone of the Visiks, and is the only person who can read the inscription at the bottom, that the third son is still buried in the mine. Then he wakes at night and meets the Visiks on the way to the pit, but loses his nerve and doesn't descend with them. Finally, he does, and lives through the explosion with Jeremy, spending a long day walking hand in hand through the dark to find a route to the surface, and then falling asleep. His parents and friend find him, and the light, dry skeleton that he has finally brought to ground.

It's a very creepy book, and the idea that it's worth Matthew risking his life to move a hundred year old skeleton a couple of miles is an odd one to want to pass onto our children. But it stuck with me so strongly, the way Matthew and Jeremy are friends across time, the way they have such innate trust in each other without really knowing each other. And sometimes you want an eerie story to make you shiver…… (mer)