Carl Dunn didn’t seem to be a diary-keeping kind of kid.
There was once a time when he wasn’t the bullying type, either, and in the new book “The Trap” by Steven Arntson, almost-seventh-grader Henry Nilsson remembered those days. Now, Carl was the worst bully in their corner of Iowa.
Henry would’ve totally avoided Carl if possible, but Carl was big brother to Henry’s best friend Alan, and in that late summer of 1967, Alan was worried. Carl had been skipping baseball practice and there were nights when he didn’t come home. That wasn’t at all like Carl; stranger still, he was writing, and what he wrote sounded dangerous.
And that was why Henry, his twin sister Helen, Alan, and Helen’s best friend Nikki were on their bikes in the woods at a campsite where Carl had been. They were looking for clues to his odd behavior when Henry found a book buried in a box beneath a pile of moldy old science-fiction novels. “Subtle Travel and the Subtle Self” had a plain cover. Henry put it in his rucksack because he liked to read.
That night, cracking the book open, he discovered something amazing.
At first, it didn’t make sense: the book instructed readers to recite some numbers, then “using your eyes, rock yourself” to step out of the physical body. When it worked, and Henry met Carl while walking around in a parallel world, he couldn’t wait to tell Helen and their friends so they could do it, too. Meeting with the author’s widow made the trick even cooler — until she invited the kids to a graveyard and Henry’s other body got ensnared in a ghostly trap.
That’s when Henry knew that getting out wouldn’t be easy.
“The Trap” has a “Stand by Me” vibe. It is also reminiscent of ’50s sci-fi novels — only a little bit sharper.
There is a big creep factor that will appeal to kids with good imaginations, and a thread of sweetly awkward romance to soften the story. Arntson further sets his book apart with parents that are more than just caricatures and a kid-centric ending that also feels very grown-up.
I think that if your child enjoys science fiction, but wants something a little more solid, or if you’re looking for a quick, decent read yourself, you can feel good choosing this one. For fourth-through-seventh-grade readers and adults, alike, “The Trap” is a book to get caught in.
“The Trap,” by Steven Arnston [247 pages, 2015, $16.99].
Terri Schlichenmeyer has been reading since she was 3 years old, and she never goes anywhere without a book. She lives on a hill with two dogs and 12,000 books.
