The Undergardeners.

Alison Mews is co-ordinator of the Centre for Instructional Services at
Memorial University of Newfoundland.

Fast-paced and funny, The Undergardeners is an imaginative fantasy of a subterranean world peopled by strange but likeable creatures. The nine-year-old protagonist, Mouse, so named because he’s small for his age, awakens one night hearing a commotion. He races into the garden just in time to save a little person from his neighbours’ cat. Thus begins his adventures. In a role reversal reminiscent of Gulliver, he is considered a giant amongst the people he calls the “undergardeners,” and he gains a whole new perspective on relationships with others.

Desmond Ellis creates an underground culture that has developed different customs, such as “sole-ing,” or showing the soles of your feet in greeting, and a plausible science, such as electricity being modulated by hummed musical notes (the key to which is kept in a notes book, of course!). Puns abound, and Ellis takes great delight in naming his characters. Digger is a mole, Sprint a tortoise, and Chuck a groundhog (or woodchuck), and there’s even a nod to Coleridge’s “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” in the name of the underground poet Ancient Rhymer. Mouse is greatly emboldened by the manner in which the others look up to him (both literally and figuratively), and when he solves the mystery of the Creepscreech, overcoming their fear of a mythical enemy, he no longer feels like an underdog but a hero. Highly recommended.

Note: A Teacher’s Guide with curricular integration in different content areas is available from the publisher’s website.