What's the Name of That Book??? discussion
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The Fox Hole
SOLVED: Children's/YA
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SOLVED. Book from 1950s/60s/70s - boy visits family and falls into a hole/mine, Chinese miners & fool's gold [s]
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Is it set in China?
Sounds like it isn't set in China. Otherwise, why specify that the miners were Chinese?
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"was said to be the location of the deserted shaft of an unproductive gold mine- called by the local boys The - Fox Hole - where two Chinese miners had been..."
"The story grew out of an experience on the farm , where the family had been mysteriously directed to a shaft sunk by Chinese prospectors..."
A very sad and shy boy (10-13) goes to stay or live with a big family of sort of uncaring adults and children (his aunt and uncle? cousins?). The main plot of the book is that this boy falls into some kind of hole or mine shaft and gets stuck, and everyone has to try and get him out. I think his uncle gets excited when the boy thinks he sees gold, but it turns out to be fool's gold, and the uncle's initial greed and subsequent disappointment is stronger than his concern for the boy. There's a weird story of the mine being perhaps cursed by the greed of two Chinese miners who died in the mine - perhaps killed each other over what they thought was gold. From my own research, this book seems similar to "Thicker Than Water" by Penelope Farmer, but I don't believe it's the same book. Has anyone read this? It seems to have disappeared off the face of the earth, or was a dream. This was kind of a nightmare of a book, which is why it's stuck with me.
When: I read this book in the nineties.
What reading level it is aimed at: Definitely young adult, middleschool probably. But very dark.