Escape Underground (KidWitness Tales) [Paperback]

Clint Kelly (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 2001 | Age Level: 8 and up | Series: KidWitness Tales

Running for their lives, the children of New Israel find a secret place to hide....

Mara and her friends find safety in the dark, wet, and dirty underground passageways of Jerusalem...but not for long! Saul and his men are close on their tail—ready to stone to death anyone who believes in Jesus.

As the new believers crawl through the smelly, winding tunnels in their quest for safety, they get into even more trouble by letting differences between Hebrew and Greek, rich and poor divide them. Will the group split up and face the life-threatening consequences, or will they find enough in common to reach the light at the end of the tunnel?

From the Heritage Builders ministry of Focus on the Family.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 4-6-These two titles attempt to portray young people living in biblical times facing problems relevant to today's youth. In Escape Underground, the children of Christian believers living through Saul's persecution of the early church learn a lesson about accepting people whose social class and background differ from their own. Eleven-year-old Mara, her brothers, and their friends consider themselves "the true Hebrew Christian kids" and look down on the believers from "Greece and Cyprus and other foreign places who [have] moved to Jerusalem." When Saul and his men arrest all of the friends' parents, it is one of those despised foreigners who leads the others to safety in the sewers and tunnels underneath the city. The Prophet's Kid is set during the reign of King Ahaz. Shub's father is the prophet Isaiah, and the boy is tired of being what we would call today a "preacher's kid." He thinks the prophet's harangues about idolatry and coming destruction are ridiculous. When he and his friends sneak out to see what goes on at the temple of Molech, they learn that idol worship isn't all fun and games. Both stories are briskly paced and competently plotted, but characters are one-dimensional. Kelly and Ware have done their best to make the children sound like young people of today, and succeed all too well-the youngsters are not convincingly a part of their historical time frame. Transporting 21st-century attitudes and behaviors into the past results in stories that ultimately fail to convince or engage.
Elaine Fort Weischedel, Franklin Public Library, MA
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"The story of the stoning of Stephen and Saul's efforts to destroy all Christians is made vividly alive." -- Christian Observer, Jan 2002

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 8 and up
  
• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Bethany House Publishers (September 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1561799645
• ISBN-13: 978-1561799640
• Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 5.2 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,676,456 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Clint Kelly is a communications specialist for Seattle Pacific University and the author of Scent, the first book in the Sensations series, as well as novels for both children and adults. As a journalist and freelance writer, he has written on a wide variety of topics, from dinosaurs to child rearing. Clint and his family live in the Seattle area.