The Great Escape was the most daring and meticulously planned prisoner-of-war breakout of the Second World War. Yet not many Canadians-least of all children-know the heroic story of Wally Floody, a Canadian airman imprisoned in Stalag Luft III, who was a key figure in digging a set of sophisticated tunnels. Now acclaimed children"s writer Barbara Hehner has penned a gripping action-adventure that tells Floody"s incredible story, and how he eventually became the consultant for the movie The Great Escape.Packed with the kind of details kids love-like the fact that the prisoners built their own radios from empty cookie tins, or how the tunnels were shored up using 4,000 boards from the prisoners" beds-The Tunnel King also provides an informative and dramatic Canadian context to the Second World War. Written in a lively style infused with Hehner"s obvious passion for her subject, this is a book that kids will devour.