Tunneling

Beth Bosworth juxtaposes vividly imaged fantasy and hyper-reality in this story of a world hovering between destruction and fragile salvation. Rachel Finch, a twelve year old booklover, joins forces with superhero S-man to save literary history. In between her travels through time and space, Rachel must cope with growing up in 1960's New Jersey, where her family and "model town" are coming apart at the seams.The fantasy portions of this book are so well rendered that they have the pure ring of myth, and Rachel's everyday reality is evoked with all the harrowing immediacy of childhood in an era of environmental threat and social change. Moving back and forth between these two worlds, the story builds steadily toward a spectacular climax in which they collide, quite literally raising the roof.Give this one a try!