Leepike Ridge

Eleven-year-old Thomas Hammond is in for the ride of his life when he's swept downstream and underground aboard a crumbling raft of Styrofoam. Washing up on a dark subterranean beach, his only companions are an impulsive dog named Argus and a corpse, from which he takes a flashlight and an all-too-limited supply of batteries. What Tom finds under Leepike Ridge--a castaway, four graves, a tomb, and buried treasure--will answer questions he hadn't known to ask and change his life forever. Now, if he can only find his way home again. . . . An original mix of Robinson Crusoe, King Solomon's Mines, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and The Odyssey, N. D. Wilson's first book for young readers is a remarkable adventure, a journey though the dark of the grave and back out into the light. From the Hardcover edition.

About the Author :
N. D. WILSON is the bestselling author of the 100 Cupboards and Ashtown Burials series. Once, in the fourth grade, he split his buddy's arrow while shooting at a mattress from twenty yards. Now he writes at the top of a tall, skinny house, where he lives with a blue-eyed girl he stole from the ocean, their five young explorers, two tortoises, and one snake. "From the Hardcover edition."

Review :
Starred review, The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, July/August 2007: "This is a ripping good adventure yarn . . . [T]he perfect remedy for any summer that's been disappointingly short on thrills." From School Library Journal: Eleven-year-old Tom Hammond lives with his widowed mother in a windblown old house chained to the top of a gigantic rock. One night, unable to sleep, he heads down to the stream that borders their property, where he has left a heavy piece of refrigerator packing foam. What starts out as aimless drifting down quiet water turns deadly when Tom's foam slab feeds into the rougher mountain water and he is pulled under a rock, ending up in an underwater cavern. The secrets he discovers while attempting to find his way out of the mountain caves are surprising, yet seamlessly executed. Wilson's rich imagination and his quirky characters are a true delight. Tom's feisty mother will not believe that her son has drowned despite the evidence to the contrary, and her run-ins with various townspeople are jewels in themselves. There are enough twists and turns in the plot to keep both seasoned and reluctant readers turning the pages. Think Mark Twain with a contemporary and utterly captivating twist. From Booklist: Fleeing the possibility of a new stepfather, 11-year-old Tom Hammond washes downriver into a series of caves that contain a few dead bodies; Reg, a man who has been trapped inside for three years; mysterious carvings; and no apparent way out. Outside, on their mountaintop, his grieving mother, threatened by treasure hunters, continues to search for him. Tom's adventures have several literary ancestors, including Tom and Huck in the cave, and the inventive Swiss Family Robinson, but this is solidly set in the present, standing on its own with well-crafted suspense and fascinating survival detail. Underlying the story is the possibility that explorers from ancient civilizations arrived in North America long bef