Kirkus Review, 1967: Everyone in the little Swiss(?) town knew the story of the underground passageway, but no one except the minister believed there was such a thing, not until the day when Willy and Karl, playing hide and seek in the Gunpowder Tower, fall through the entrance from the tower cellar and emerge, covered with dirt, in the baker's back room. Then the minister, summoned from typing his Sunday sermon, crawls into the passageway, followed by the fat baker, and finds a mysterious-looking chest. The doctor, second-floor resident of the tower, coming down at that moment to fetch a bottle of wine, drops it in fright on the head of the emerging minister. The comedy of errors ends in celebration: the chest contains a document attesting that the town will soon be a thousand years old; the inhabitants observe the occasion by dancing and feasting and–"the greatest attraction of all"–crawling through the now-clean tunnel. It's that rarity, a short picture story with real action in which the pictures carry the action and the text is confined to three lines. The illustrations are bright and fresh and friendly – it's sure-fire communication, sure-fire fun straight through.
