Aaron Zook’s Thunder and Lightning book series follows two young boys and their dogs on their adventures worldwide. It is a series filled with adventure, faith, growth, and perseverance. My 9-year-old son and I recently had the privilege of reading books 1-3 and were completely enthralled in every twist and turn we faced along the way! The first three books in the series are The Secrets of The Castle, The Salt Mines Mystery, and The Phantom of The Fortress. These books are available on the Zook Books website for $10-$13 each, or you can purchase them in a set for the bundle price of $35. There are two more books available now (The Isle of Intrigue and The Crashin’ Coaster Mystery), and an anticipated 12 total books will be released to complete the series. Each book gets progressively longer. The first book is a quick read, including 27 chapters and 185 pages, while the third book is 59 chapters and 297 pages.

After beginning the first book, we quickly realized that it was a slightly higher reading level than my son was comfortable. To avoid overwhelming him, we scheduled time each day to read together one-on-one. My son read the first and last page of each chapter aloud to me, and I read all the pages in between to him. This allowed him to stretch his “reading muscles” while still really enjoying the story. If you are searching for a series for your child to read entirely independently, I would suggest these books for ages 12 and up.

Reading this book with my son has been not only a wonderful way to spend one-on-one time together but also a great way to dig deeper into our faith and our school lessons! The Secrets of The Castle is based in Germany near the time of the falling of the Berlin Wall. Right away, we were able to apply this book’s setting to what we had already learned about Germany and the Berlin Wall. It was beautiful to see his prior knowledge fuel his curiosity into what our two main characters, Gabe, and Alex, would face during this time period. Gabe and Alex are quite adventurous siblings. While they were exploring caves and castles, my son and I were researching stalagmites, stalactites, Neuschwanstein Castle, Hohenschwangau. Castle, King Ludwig II, and more! I absolutely loved all the opportunities that these books presented to dig deeper and learn more about the world around us. We also learned a lot about our loyal canine friends, Thunder and Lighting. Gabe and Alex had their dogs so well-trained that we were inspired to learn more. My son is determined to teach our two dogs some lessons in emergency training and voice commands!

Among all the adventures, Zook’s stories always focus back on faith and family. He does a beautiful job of creating characters that are both relatable and inspiring. Gabe and Alex exhibit classic sibling rivalry and display incredible growth over the three books as they face more adversity and grow closer in their relationships with each other and with God. When they are in the most challenging situations, they always turn to God for strength and remind us of the power of prayer.

Each story transitions seamlessly into the next, leaving the reader wanting more.  As soon as we finished The Secrets of The Castle, we knew that Gabe, Alex, Thunder, and Lightning were headed to the Salt Mines with their family- and we just had to start The Salt Mines Mystery right away!

Aaron Zook took us on three wild, exciting adventures in these first three books, and we are looking forward to ordering the next two! It is not always easy to get my son invested in a book that is not a graphic novel, but this series did the trick. I appreciated how “real” he made the main characters. Zook truly created Gabe and Alex to be relatable teen boys that my son could see his reflection. I would recommend this book to anyone who is seeking a faith-filled adventure!

-Product review by Danielle Lenz, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, February 2021