"Mandie and the Secret Tunnel" by Lois Gladys Leppard

I had a decent number of these books as a kid (okay, I still have them) and was pretty excited when they showed up available for checkout on my kindle. However, I didn't feel like the books (at least the first two) held up like I remembered. Mandie's father has just died and her life has been turned upside down. Her mother, who clearly doesn't care for her daughter, quickly remarries and soon Mandie is sent to care for another family's baby. The only good thing in her life is Uncle Ned, a member of the Cherokee tribe that looks after Mandie. Soon she can't take it anymore and, with the help of Uncle Ned, Mandie runs away to her Uncle John's in hopes of finally finding a family. Unfortunately, soon after she gets to her uncle's she finds out that he has passed away. This starts a series of events that leads to the arrival of fake family members, the search of Uncle John's will, and Mandie finding out the truth about her life.

The concept for this book is good, but it worked for me much more as a kid than as an adult. I felt like the writing was lacking something and just wasn't very captivated by the story this time around. I also felt that much of the plot was introduced in a way that was too convenient (for instance, the final big plot point *no spoilers* was too convenient for my tastes. While I'm glad that Mandie got her happy ending, I wish that a little more time could have been dedicated to that part of the plot). I know that girls still read these books so I hope that they enjoy them. I have many happy memories of my first go around with this series. But if you have read them before, I worry that you may not enjoy them as much during a re-read.

On a related note, I saw where the movie was on Netflix so of course I watched it. Wow. I didn't have high hopes for it since most movies based on books aren't very good, but this one was not a happy experience. Sadly, it was some of the worse acting I have seen. Highly recommend skipping this one.



Happy Reading!
-Melly