Jack and Judith Woods
Towpath Tales
towpathtales.com
219 Mill Road
Morgantown, PA 19543-9516
610-286-0258
In Towpath Mysteries, fourteen-year-old Jonathan Hamilton returns for another summer of high adventure and lurking danger along the Erie Canal. Readers were introduced to Jonathan in the first book, Towpath Adventures. These two books make up (so far) the Towpath Tales series. Set in central New York State during the early days of the Erie Canal, this middle-grade historical fiction realistically portrays life along our nation’s early waterway.
This time around, readers find Jonathan at rest from the family conflicts that plagued him in the first book. He has turned his life over to Christ, and it has made a difference in how he views his father, his stepmother, and his little sister, Grace. He’s been home from his work on the Erie Canal for two years and is maturing into an exceptional young man.
Then . . . enter Uncle James, for whom Jonathan worked a couple of summers before aboard the canal boat, Deliverance. Uncle James needs Jonathan’s help, as one of his crew members is transferring to another boat. Jonathan jumps at the chance to lead the mules along the towpath again, knowing that this task is only the beginning of an adventure-filled summer. In Towpath Mysteries, Jonathan and his fellow crew member, Charles, encounter grave robbers, rescue a lost young lady, save a child from drowning, and survive a horrendous accident. Never a dull moment along the Erie Canal!
Towpath Mysteries follows the same plan as Adventures, allowing the reader to journey into our nation’s past through the eyes of Jonathan, a likeable main character. A glossary is provided for those unfamiliar, outdated words readers may come across. In addition, Mysteries includes a number of photographs depicting some of the happenings in the book. Real-life historical characters also make appearances in a natural way.
This book and the first one make excellent additions to a unit study on the Erie Canal. My only suggestion would be to have on hand a map of the Erie Canal, in order to put the places the Deliverance visits into perspective. I did have a hard time visualizing the route. Perhaps future books might include a map of the Deliverance’s journey.
—Product review by: Susan K. Marlow, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, July 2008.
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