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Summary: A gem from the 1950s
Review: "Gone-Away Lake" is a delightful, beautifully written story, just this side of fantasy and filled with interesting, likable characters. A brother and sister from the city take the train to visit their country cousin. The children discover an old, mostly abandoned summer colony of houses near a swamp that used to be a lake. There they meet the most charming people in the book, an elderly sister and brother, Minnehaha Cheever and Pindar Payton, who are living happily in the place where they spent summers as children. The pair wear old-fashioned clothes stored away many years ago by their family, cultivate a variety of gardens, and have chickens, goats, a duck, and a cat named Fatly. Once a month, Pindar cranks up the antique Franklin car and drives into town for supplies. The children are adventuresome and imaginative, and have no need of TV to keep themselves amused. The descriptions of the country are amazingly vivid, and there's plenty of humor too. Don't miss the sequel, "Return to Gone-Away." And Elizabeth Enright's series about the Melendy family is also fun to read.
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Summary: Gone Away Lake - Summer Magic
Review: As Portia climbs aboard the train headed to Pork Ferry where she will spend her summer vacation with her cousin, she expects only the normal adventures: bug catching, finding mosses and looking up birds - what they always do. But this summer is different. On the first day of exploring they find themselves in a vast swamp with ruins of ancient houses around its borders. Once this swamp was a beautiful lake, a summer resort. But two people never left, the two people who can tell the story of Gone Away Lake and the many magical summers spent there. It is a thoroughly exciting book you can't put down until finished!!! It is most definitely a must read for all people, young and old.
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Summary: Gone-Away Lake is never far-away from my heart.
Review: Gone-Away Lake and its sequel were my favorite books as a child, and I have also re-read them frequently over the years. I feel a kinship with the other people who have reviewed this book and love it as I do. I now have introduced it to my 8 year old son, and am so happy that he shares my love for this book. I love escaping to this gone-away place, and wish that I grew up in an era when children could safely wander, explore, and discover during the long lazy days of summer! How much more wonderful than today's summers filled with shopping malls, television, and Nintendo!
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Summary: Gone-Away Lake
Review: Gone-Away Lake is about a girl named Portia Blake who goes with her brother Foster to visit their cousin Julian in the country. Every summer they go to Julian and Aunt Hilda and Uncle Jake's house. Portia and Julian always go exploring outdoors. This summer is even more exciting because Julian's family moved into a new house and so they have a new place to explore. On their first day Portia and Julian discover a big rock with a mysterious message written in Latin on it. They keep walking and get lost. They come to a swamp that is choked with reeds and on the other side of it is a ghost town! Or is it really abandoned? They find out that two people live there - Mrs. Minnehaha Cheever and Mr. Pindar Payton. Why are they living all alone on this swamp? To find out why they are there and the history of the swamp, you should read this book that is very good.
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Summary: Back in Time
Review: I really enjoyed this book because it is like a fairy tale but a little more realistic. When Portia and Julian cross the swamp its almost like going back in time and the people they meet are from that other time. I would recommend it to people of all ages who enjoy fantasies about the characters.
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Summary: A Gentle, Funny Delight
Review: Written and set about 20 years later than the author's Melendy series, this book and its sequel prove that Enright hadn't lost her insight into juvenile character. Portia and Foster Blake head for upstate New York to visit their cousin, Julian Jarman, and his parents. Like the Melendys at the Four-Story Mistake, the Jarmans have just shifted quarters, and thereby hangs the tale: exploring the new region, Portia and Julian happen upon a former lake mostly drained by a new dam, and edged still by the crumbling remains of a community of late-Victorian summer houses. Living there are two elderly eccentrics who spent their childhood summers at the resort and inspire a season of wonderful reminiscences and adventures. This is another excellent family read-aloud with splendidly drawn characters (both children and adults). I still reread it regularly though I'm a long way from being age 9-12!
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