The Mystery Cave: Volume 7

These books are underrated. Hutchens is really quite a theologian, and quite profound sometimes. I have been reading this book aloud to my two oldest kids (ages 6 and 7) and they are intrigued with the story--at least they sit and keep listening. Meanwhile, I am intrigued by the deep ideas that Hutchins is conveying. This book describes a hunting scene, rather compassionately toward the animals that are killed, and then parallels that with the idea of sacrifice, ultimately Jesus' sacrifice. The parallel makes sense in the mind of a kid; my kids understand it when I talk to them about it. I admit the writing style is not quite appropriate for today's audience. We are not accustomed to reading the description of setting for two whole pages. There is also a problem of what would probably be considered racism in today's society, although Hutchins meant it in a noble way: one pious character is praying for missionaries around the world using a map that he has marked with pins--brown-headed pins for missionaries in Mexico, black-headed pins for Africa, and yellow for China. Yeah. Not exactly politically correct! But innocent enough, probably. The whole story is very outdoorsy, very good for boys especially. The gang is a group of boys who has fun together, play fights, teases, but ultimately encourages each other toward goodness. Anyway, if you have a budding theologian in your house, this is an ideal book!

The Sugar Creek Gang is a group of kids that have many adventures and all of them have nicknames. First there's Bill then Poetry who knows about 100 poems. Then there's Circus who is very acrobatic. Next is Dragonfly who is always seeing things before everyone else. The littlest in the gang is little Jim. And the leader is big Jim. The Sugar Creek Gang find a cave that they plan to sleep in. Dragonfly is afraid that there are ghosts in the cave. Poetry plans to scare everyone. Bill helps Poetry with his plan. Everyone gets scared. They find a secret passage in the cave that leads to someone's house that they know. In 1925 the author, Paul Hutchens, was made a Baptist minister. Only a few years into his career, Hutchens was forced out of the ministry when he was told he had a terrible disease called Tuberculosis. Though his time as an evangelist was cut short, Paul Hutchens guessed that he had preached 1,777 sermons and saw 2,500 people become Christians. While he was getting better from his sickness, he tried writing and soon found out that he was good at it. I'm amazed and fascinated at how the Sugar Creek Gang found the secret passage. I was curious about what was going to happen after they slept in the cave. I was interested at how old man Paddler came to the cave through the secret passage. There are many things to be excited about in this book cause this book is written about how a boys life can be. This is an astounding story. I think it is awesome. I think you should read this book because it shows how a boy's life can be. The Sugar Creek Gang is a series of books about some kid's who live a very adventurous life. They all have some special talent and I appreciate that.

MYSTERY CAVE IS AWSOME! A LATE NIGHT HUNTING TRIP KEEPS THE SUGAR CREEK GANG HAVING FUN. LATER, A FRIEND OF THEIR'S, OLD MAN PADDLER, INVITES THEM TO HIS CABIN FOR A SASSAFRASS TEA PARTY. THEN SUDDENLY, A KNOCK ON THE DOOR ENTERUPS THE PARTY! THE NEXT THING YOU KNOW, THEY FIND THEMSELVES KNEE-DEEP IN A QUICKSAND RESCUE--FOR SOMEONE THEY DON'T REALLY LIKE. PRETTY SOON THEY FIND THEMSELVES HELPING SOMEONE FIND THE BENEFITS OF FOLLOWING JESUS AND THE CRUELTY OF SINNING. THESE BOOKS ARE ABOUT A FEW CHRISTIAN BOYS DOING WHAT'S RIGHT AND HELPING OTHERS TO KNOW JESUS AND TO FOLLOW HIM AND READ HIS WORD!