The Noland Kids Adventure Series
The Key House (Book 1)
The Key House by Mike Curtis is book one in The Noland Kids Adventure Series. The Noland family has recently moved into the home of Noland kids’ great-grandfather. Playing in the backyard, David and his older brother Caleb discover a hole that leads to a cavern with a giant map. After sharing their findings with their parents, their father, Dave, is just as excited as they are to learn that some of the stories, he heard growing up may have some truth to them.
In a subsequent week, Dave, David, and Caleb go exploring, but soon reach a dead-end. Dave is disappointed, but David and Caleb are undeterred as they begin to look for clues after reading the original ancestor’s diary. Before long, they have assembled a key and are off on an adventure, but this time unbeknownst to their parents. Unfortunately, the antagonist neighbor and his grandson follow their tracks and seek to take the treasure from them as the boys are forced to continue solving one clue after another. After two near death experiences for David, the boys do end up finding the treasure along with the neighbor’s grandson, JJ. The neighbor himself seems to have perished in the rapid water the four navigate before arriving at the final location.
This story is much more than adventure, and parents will appreciate the wholesome themes and the dynamic characters. Caleb is the character who grows the most in this novel, aside from JJ. Caleb, twelve-years-old, is a pitcher on a local baseball team and has the honor of making the All-Star team. However, Caleb is struggling with pride and the desire for everything to praise him for his great baseball skills. His pride causes him to put down his younger brother, David, who is ten-years-old. After being rebuked by his father and baseball coach, Caleb also begins to feel the pressing of the Holy Spirit on his behavior and treatment of his brother. As the story unfolds, this internal struggle of Caleb’s is subtly present and comes to completion when he finally confesses and apologizes to his brother David.
JJ is approximately late teens, early twenties in the novel. He technically is related to the family by his father’s lineage; however, he lives with his grumpy and bitter grandfather who was unkind to his daughter, her husband, and now to JJ. Jonathan Noland, the original ancestor of the Noland family, has a story in which he came by pirate treasure, which he used to build his business and orphanages around the world. Due to the unkind nature of his children, he did not leave any of the treasure to them but instead hid it until someone worthy found it. JJ’s grandfather vicariously believes that he deserves some of this treasure which is why he goes after the boys and seeks to take the treasure from them. JJ has only grown up with this negative influence, with the exception really of his mother who often spoke to him about Jesus. Throughout the underground adventure, Caleb speaks to JJ and allows JJ an opportunity to share his story and experiences. Caleb challenges and questions JJ which eventually leads to him giving a presentation of the Gospel. As the story ends, JJ is living with the rest of the Noland family.
Noteworthy Quotes/Mentions:
After being underground unprepared, David happens to have a flashlight in his pocket. Once they are able to turn it on, the boys feel more at ease in the underground cavern. “Sometimes light does a good job chasing away fears” (7).
Addressing Caleb’s poor treatment of his brother, Dave tells Caleb, “without baseball and its potential ‘fame and fortune,’ you are still infinitely valuable. Don’t find your worth in people’s opinions of you, great as they may be. Find it in this one thing: God’s opinion of you. He says you are dearly loved and have value beyond measure. And God’s opinion about you will never change” (44).
When Coach Connelly addresses Caleb’s behavior he states, “You intimidated your brother and then humiliated him in front of his teammates. And then your excessive celebration was just beyond words. [...] You need to sit out and think about how you treat people sometimes” (59-60).
There are rumors around town about the Noland property and the original ancestor. One is that his treasure is guarded by ghosts, which is mentioned on page 71. The boys know this to be a lie and say so. The father, Dave, also addresses this by using the teaching moment as an opportunity to weave in what the Bible says happens when a person dies (75).
On page 77, there is a mention of "sixty percent of the girls world-wide become prostitutes” when speaking of orphans. Caleb is doing research on an orphanage project and shares this information with his family. Depending on the age of your reader, there may be questions regarding this, so I just wanted to draw attention to the mention for parents.
“Quick answers can sometimes be shallow and lack thought or compassion. Truths like this sting. They need time to be weighed and thought through” (78).
On page 84, the boys are worried there is something haunted keeping their flashlights from working; however, they realize later that the gravy from the food impacted the flashlights.
Caleb struggles with his emotions - anger and pride - the author writes, “He was at a loss in the struggle. He could not be that bad, he thought. Perhaps they were all wrong. Perhaps they were just jealous. His anger resisted the change. He pushed the thoughts out of his head as his face went blank” (129).
Old Bill Grayson, the mean neighbor, has a gun and uses that to persuade the Noland boys to listen to him.
Curtis does a great job of weaving in Gospel truth and the workings of the Holy Spirit on the characters in a way that doesn’t detract from the story line but is actually genuine and authentic. I love this great adventure story that is also a way to minister and teach children about the truth of scripture.
