A Tunnel in the Pines

It’s the last week of school before summer vacation. Best friends Andrew and Wills realize they’ll have to come up with a plan to avoid getting sucked into the same old stuff their parents sign them up for every year, like soccer or computer camp. This summer, they want adventure. So they start a club with some neighborhood kids, adopting Andrew’s Darwinian science project as their guiding mission after being forced to accept Wills’ overbearing older brother Taylor, and his hulking sidekick, Strat, as members. But something’s wrong with Andrew, and the test to determine who will join their club seems to be rapidly spinning out of control. When outsmarting the older boys proves challenging, and the club’s underground initiation goes haywire, surviving it tests the strength of both friendship and brotherhood.

Greene ably presents the contradictions and difficulties of growing up from a boy’s point of view. The way that Wills navigates his competing instincts is realistic and moving. A skillful exploration of a tween boy’s coming-of-age. - KIRKUS REVIEWS