Book Review
Children's book ‘Thunder Cave’ re-written for today

by Lindsie Taylor
Scroll Staff

Retelling a story has never gone as well for a grandmother as it has for Denise G. Jones. A story she heard as a child, Thunder Cave, has become a book that now touches lives across the nation.

Jeremiah Stokes, lawyer and storyteller, and Jack Sears, artist and illustrator, created the story in 1932. Thunder Cave’s roots lie in the South where both men served LDS missions and later returned to live.

Stokes and Sears took their love of the people and region of the South back to Utah with them where they created this legendary tale.

“Begun scarcely four decades after the Civil War, the story’s heroes are two young African-American boys who embark on a dangerous quest with only hotcakes in their pockets. It is a quest that takes them into the depths of Thunder Cave and, ultimately, into Santa’s Toy Shops. There they learn the secret to peace on earth, the rule of conduct basic to the world’s great religions: ‘Love thy neighbor as thyself,’” Jones said.

After carefully studying Stokes’ style of writing in both the 1932 and 1945 editions of the book, Jones retold the story to bring the timeless tale up to today’s standards for children’s literature.

The retelling took over 20 years to complete, but the end result is a story that children of all ages can learn from.

Jones had four basic reasons for retelling the story: to combine the two different editions, to make for “easier reading” (a simplified dialect), to respect diverse cultures and to make it listener-and-reader-friendly for today’s youth, while maintaining the flavor and integrity of Jeremiah Stokes’ original work.

“In all of my creations ... I endeavored to drive home by example some principle of correct conduct ... [and] purposely eliminated all things that were not in harmony with clean entertainment and constructive thought,” Jeremiah Stokes said in 1932.

The new millennium edition is the product of childhood memories, a legacy started by Stokes and Sears and years of research by Jones.

“Thunder Cave was progressive for its day. In fostering attitudes of tolerance and respect among people of differing beliefs, race and customs, it is also a story for our times,” Jones said. “Children today need books like Thunder Cave that help them transcend global and individual human differences.”

More information about Thunder Cave is available at www.mahonri.org

Rating: 3/5 stars

All material posted on Scroll eNews is property of BYU-Idaho Scroll.
Contact scrollinternet@byui.edu with comments or problems.