The Tunnel
by Sarah Howden (Author) Erika Rodriguez Medina (Illustrator)
A spare, powerful story about taking space to process difficult feelings
After something bad happens, a boy feels sad and gray. Mom and Aunt Cheryl try to talk about it, but he feels like running away. So he picks up a shovel and starts digging a tunnel from his room, deep down and into the backyard. Out there, far from the lights of the house, it's dark enough that he could disappear. But the quiet distance also gives him the space he needs to see his family's love and start returning home.
As he heads back, the journey upward is different. He notices familiar details and tunes into his senses. The tunnel isn't so scary this time. The boy emerges into his room just as Mom peeks in. When she notices a twig in his hair, he is ready to talk about the tunnel and finds warmth in her gentle acknowledgment: "You came back."
Quiet, emotionally resonant text is paired with grayscale drawings accented with red in this thoughtfully layered exploration of coping with tough emotions, and taking time and space to heal.
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School Library Journal
K-Gr 3--"Something bad happened. I don't like to think about it," a pale-skinned, dark-haired child narrates. "Now it's just me and my mom in the quiet house." The child doesn't always feel like hugging, and doesn't want to talk, so they begin to dig with a plastic shovel, right through the floor of their room. They tunnel down into the ground, meeting worms, beetles, and moles, until they pop up in the backyard, and can look into the house from the outside. Having dug an escape route, the child crawls back through the tunnel; that evening, they accept their mother's hug and tell her, "I made a tunnel out of here. And then I came back." Monochromatic illustrations emphasize the characters' grief, while soft red notes of color draw the eye. That "what has happened" is not named only broadens the scope of this story. VERDICT Both metaphor and meditation, this touching, lovely story is a conversation-opener between children and caregivers dealing with loss; it recognizes the need to be alone, as well as the merits and comfort of finding one's way to loved ones.--Jenny Arch
Copyright 2022 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.Review quotes
JUV039140 - Juvenile Fiction | Social Themes | Self-Esteem & Self-Reliance
JUV013000 - Juvenile Fiction | Family | General
Emotions
Grief
Loss (Psychology)
Psychological aspects
Grief in children
Emotions in children
Healing
Tunneling
Loss (Psychology) in children
