Mandie and the Secret Tunnel
Book #1
by Lois Gladys Leppard

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: Children’s Christian historical fiction

For complete transparency, I’ll say up front that I read a lot of this series when I was a kid/pre-teen, and I read some of them to my now-teen daughter when she was younger. Nostalgia will hugely affect my reviews for this series, and I have no plans to try to be objective.

Written in the 80s and set in 1900, the book begins with the death of 12-year-old Mandie’s father. Her mother clearly has no love for her and sends her away to work for an equally unkind family that needs help taking care of a baby. But through Uncle Ned, an old friend of her father’s and a Cherokee, Mandie learns of her father’s brother, who she’d never known existed, and with Uncle Ned’s help sets out to find a better life with her uncle (her real uncle, because “Uncle” Ned isn’t really her uncle).

This introduction to Mandie and her heritage is charming. There’s a mystery involving the will of a relative of Mandie’s, and it’s not exactly a deep mystery, but for the age group, I think it’s intriguing enough. Uncle Ned is a comforting presence for both Mandie and me, to be honest, as I seem to recall a feeling that when he’s involved, everything is going to be okay. I’m not a huge fan of Polly, a new friend of Mandie’s in this book, but overall, this is the kind of book where the good people are really good and the bad people are quite (sometimes over-the-top) bad. Not that they’re all villains, but their personalities are pretty sour.

I can’t pretend that this book holds up really well for me as an adult—Mandie’s friend Joe is domineering, and it’s super awkward when Joe and Polly meet and are attracted to each other (these kids are all 12-14, don’t forget). The Christianity presented in this book is shallow at best, maybe even somewhat works-based, which I couldn’t possibly have realized was incorrect as a kid. The preacher who talks at her dad’s funeral and visits her later only scares Mandie, rather than helping her through her difficult time. It’s unfortunate that Mandie doesn’t believe God cares about her until things end up working out well in the end, which is not a great message for kids.

My daughter read the entire series (which is more than I’ve read, but I plan to rectify that) when she was around 10 years old and loved them. Even now, at 15, she remembers them fondly and is planning to re-read them again some time soon. If that isn’t an endorsement, I don’t know what is.

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If you’ve read this book, or read it in the future, feel free to let me know what you think!