At one time or another, every red-blooded boy dreams of being able to overcome any situation, no matter how dire it seems. Has there ever been a boy who wouldn't love to wrestle a crocodile and emerge victorious with the crocodile under his control? How about gaining control of a sea monster to the point where you could throw a saddle on it and ride?

Who hasn't wanted their fame for solving problems to spread so far that an alien race kidnaps you so that you can help them solve a major problem? And what about befriending Big Foot and helping him out? Wow!

The Beat 5 Boys, Bradley and Herring, experience all of this and more in The Adventures of the Beat 5 Boys. They lived in southern Henry County, Alabama during the 1960s and fell through a time warp via the swirling waters of Norton Hole, a part of Big Abbey Creek. Their travels back and forth through time and the accompanying adventures would make any teenager jealous. Not only do they have some fantastic adventures, they gain some very special powers, abilities that anyone would love to have. Among these powers are the ability to hear each other's thoughts and the ability to turn invisible.

While on their adventure of traveling through time, both the past and the future, they get to meet people that they have learned about in history, such as Calamity Jane, Wild Bill Hickok, and Jesse James. They are in Dallas, Texas on the day that John F. Kennedy is assassinated. The best way to learn history is to experience it, as Bradley and Herring discover. They also help others out and do some good. A little girl fell down a well and her mother was at a loss as to how to get her out. Bradley and Herring immediately set to work rescuing this young child.

Eugene Bradley is blessed with a wonderful imagination. The storyline he created was great and the events transpire in a logical manner. In the prologue of the book, the author tells you to be prepared to lose sleep as you follow Bradley and Herring on their adventures. Since I am a visual reader, there are very few books that succeed in keeping me up at night. It seemed that the events in the story were being told to me, rather than being shown, so I didn't lose any sleep over what was happening. At times, especially when the history of a time or place was being explained, it read far too much like a school book.

Also, new paragraphs were not started each time the speaker changed. This turned out to be a bit confusing; at times I had to go back and reread part of the story to see just who was speaking. I did ask the author why he wrote it this way. He told me that he didn't want his book to be over 400 pages long. To keep it from going over his page limit, he couldn't start a new paragraph each time the speaker changed.

Am I glad I read the story? Yes, I am. Even though parts of it were difficult for me to read, it was a really good story. Bradley and Herring were good boys whose adventures through the time warp were worth reading about. I hope Mr. Bradley continues to write about their adventures.

This book was given to me free of charge by a friend. If you would like to obtain a copy of The Adventures of the Beat 5 Boys so you can experience Bradley and Herring's escapades, I have provided 2 links to Amazon below. The first link is for a Kindle version of the book, the second for a paperback copy.

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