Once upon a time there lived a brother and sister who were complete opposites and constantly fought and argued. One day they discovered the tunnel. The boy goes through it at once, dismissing his sister's fears. When he doesn't return his sister has to pluck up the courage to go through the tunnel too. She finds her brother in a mysterious forest where he has been turned to stone...
A fascinating adventure story that is more suitable for Key stage 2 due to the context. Initially, it presents a familiar scene of sibling rivalry that all children will be able to identify and relate to at some level. The author’s portrayal of the contrasting male and female characters is particularly stereotypical - Jack likes to play football, roughly. He is a loud boisterous young man, while Rose is quiet and nervous; she enjoys spending her time reading endless books. This idea of stereotypical behaviour is good discussion point for the class to explore in more detail.
The elder of the two Characters, Jack, dismisses his sister’s fears and wanders into a dark tunnel only to find himself alone, lost and eventually frozen in a statute like position. The reader never discovers what happens to Jack during this period of time but this provides a good starting point for predictions within literacy. The setting, a strange and unknown world at the end of a mystery tunnel, provides endless possibilities for this activity. The story is exploring the relationships between siblings, Jack is assured that despite her fears; Rose will follow him into the tunnel. Indeed, Rose does desperately want to retrieve her brother to ensure his safety but she is tormented by the idea of scary and unknown creatures that may lurk within the tunnel. This moral dilemma that Rose faces allows children to relate to her character, they may compare her challenge to a situation they found themselves in whereby they were unsure of the right decision to make. Rose is courageous and travels through the tunnel only to find her dear brother rooted to the ground, numb, fixed, and perhaps petrified. Her warm embrace and wet tears soon melt Jack and they run home together.
At home, neither character wishes to disclose the day’s events to their mother. The story subtly hints at a ‘secret garden’ of emotions that occur between siblings.
The illustrations in this book are lovely, especially once the children are in the magical forest. Illustrations at the beginning of the book depict a clear separation between the boy and girl in the beginning, each seen in their own bordered frames, until a much larger image of the brother sneaking into his sister's room at night, wearing a wolf mask. Browne dedicates a double page spread to an elaborate drawing of the forest with its creepy details. The illustrations of the forest are excellent because when you look at the trees closely there is more than meets the eye. The full page double spread of the girl running through a forest of ferocious bears and wolves in feminine attire is a clever depiction of the girl's imagination run amok.
Notable language within The Tunnel is Browne’s use of rhetorical questions. When Jack disappears within the tunnel and Rose is left to wait, the author asks “what could she do?”. Following on from this, the author writes “she had to follow him into the tunnel” specifically highlighting writing ‘had’ in Italics to imply that Rose didn’t have a choice thus opening up further opportunity for discussion in which learners could consider what they would do in such a situation.
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