Charlie Small – The Underworld

Charlie Small's The Underworld is a properly creepy underground adventure for 7 year olds, written as the battered journal of a boy who just can't get home.

What happens

Charlie is eight. He's also four hundred years old, which is the joke the whole series runs on. This time his inventor friend Jakeman has been dragged under the desert sand by a huge hairy hand, so Charlie dives in after him.

Down there it's tunnels, tunnels and more tunnels. A tribe of ape-men chase him yelling "Man-cha!", which Charlie reckons means man-food. He only gets away by sawing off a chunk of his own hair with a sharp bit of flint.

Then his torch dies. So he glues a piece of string to a glowing bug the size of a tennis ball and takes it along like a dog on a lead. Who wouldn't want a pet torch?

It's very much an explorer's journal. Charlie lists all twenty-three things in his rucksack and names a brand new species himself (the Spidion, a spider as big as an armchair with a scorpion's tail). He writes it all up whenever he gets a quiet minute.

The best bit is being inside his head. When the dark gets too much he tells himself off out loud, then tells himself off again for talking to himself. He's not scared of the dark, he insists (although he does like the landing light left on at home).

There are plenty of groans and giggles too. A big hairy ape-man turns out to be friendly and hands him a sandwich. The filling is a squashed rat. Charlie is so hungry he shuts his eyes and goes in for another bite!

It's worth knowing this one has a LOT of bones in it. The sticky web stretched over a lava pit is littered with skulls, and an ape-man grabs a giant rat and eats it (Charlie can't bear to watch, so you don't see it). There's also a long stretch stumbling about in total darkness.

A child who gets spooked by the dark or by creepy-crawlies might find it a bit much at bedtime. One who loves a gross-out moment will probably think it's brilliant, because Charlie never stops cracking jokes.

This is Charlie's fifth journal and it picks up the moment the fourth one stops, so it really helps to know who Jakeman is.

What to read next

If you haven't started yet, go right back to the beginning with Gorilla City. That's where Charlie grabs his rucksack and paddles his raft off down the flooded stream at the bottom of the garden, with Mum telling him not to be late for tea.