Can You Dig It?

By Shannon Maughan, Children's Bookshelf -- Publishers Weekly, 3/20/2008

A new fantasy-suspense novel about a secret subterranean world is causing some rumblings above ground (where we “Topsoilers” live). Tunnels (Scholastic/Chicken House), which chronicles the adventures of 14-year-old budding archeologist Will Burrows digging beneath modern-day London, is the debut work of British authors Roderick Gordon and Brian Williams. The book landed Stateside in January, bolstered by a 100,000-copy first printing and a brief promotional tour. Already back to press three times since then, the title now boasts 250,000 copies in print. Film rights were sold to Relativity Media for more than $1 million and at least 37 foreign language editions have been licensed.

This bullish beginning in the U.S. comes on the heels of great success in the U.K. Tunnels hit shelves there in June 2007 after Chicken House publisher Barry Cunningham fell in love with the book in its original, self-published form, then known as The Highfield Mole. “I think children love digging holes, and dream of unearthing wonderful secrets,” Cunningham says of the book’s appeal. “Like all the best children's adventures it is all about friendship, family loyalty and... oh yes... scary creatures. It’s a perfect blend.”

Tunnels authors Brian
Williams (l.) and Roderick Gordon.

Booksellers and their young customers have been receptive out of the gate as well. “The kids love the descriptiveness in the writing, and how it made them feel like they were right there, underground, with the characters in the book,” says Bob Brown, owner of Books, Bytes & Beyond in Glen Rock, N.J. “They are eagerly looking forward to the arrival of the sequel.”

Speaking of sequels, Cunningham says that young readers on this side of the pond can expect to see book two, Deeper, in February 2009, and a third volume will follow in spring 2010. A paperback edition of Tunnels is due next January. Scholastic has big plans for getting the word out, too. The publisher will kick off a viral teaser campaign this May to hook the summer reading crowd, and will continue the promotions until Deeper arrives. The campaign consists of four animated video clips that will include a trailer featuring authors Williams and Gordon. The clips will be available on a variety of online outlets, including YouTube, iTunes, MSNKids, Booktv.com, Yahoo, MySpace, BookSense, libraries, and online book retailers.

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