World of Adventure 16 – Thunder Valley

Gary Paulsen's Thunder Valley is a snowy mystery for 10 year olds about teenage twins left in charge of their grandparents' ski lodge.

What happens

Jeremy and his twin brother Jason are fourteen and look exactly alike. They're spending the winter at Thunder Valley because Grandpa broke his hip skiing. When the slopes empty out, Jeremy races an imaginary Olympic champion down his favourite run. Jason plays practical jokes and is ALWAYS hungry.

But something isn't right at the lodge. The bank statements never match the money Grandpa sent in. The new chairlifts he ordered never arrived. The ski instructor gets a letter sacking him that the boys are sure Grandpa never wrote.

Then an ambulance takes Grandpa away, and the twins are suddenly running the place.

It's a quick, twisty read with short chapters. There's always something odd going on. A strange symbol on a necklace turns up again as a tattoo on the rude maintenance man's hand. Their tutor says it belongs to an ancient band of criminals called the Broken Tree. And the housekeeper, Lila, always seems to be standing in the doorway (just how much has she heard?).

You're right there with Jeremy as he tries to work out who he can trust. The brothers' teasing keeps it light, even when things get serious.

Worth knowing before you hand it over

Early on, Lila tells Jeremy that his grandfather tried to take his own life. It isn't true, and Grandma puts that right a few chapters later, but the words are there on the page. Later, Jeremy is shut inside a smoke-filled garage and has a gun pointed at him.

The twins are older than your reader too, so this probably suits a confident reader, or one you can chat with about that early scene. For a child who loves a proper whodunnit with ski lifts, snowmobiles and a lodge full of suspects, it's a lot of fun.

What to read next

If they want another of Gary Paulsen's twins-on-an-adventure mysteries, try Curse of the Ruins. Katie and Sam are twins too, flying to New Mexico to meet their dad, and someone snatches Katie's bag before they're even out of the airport.