Thursday, August 15, 2019

From my bookshelf: Gone-Away Lake


I decided one fun feature I want to include weekly (if possible) is a favorite-book post.  This might be a children's book (picture book or chapter book), a non-fiction or spiritual growth book, an adult fiction book...pretty much anything that's one of my or my kids' favorites!  I have a feeling that the hard part will be just choosing ONE book per week...as I am an avid bookworm, and so are some of my kids. 😉

My choice for this first bookish post is a children's novel: Gone-Away Lake, by Elizabeth Enright.  I don't remember when I first discovered Gone-Away; it feels like this book has been a part of my life forever!  I also don't remember if my mom read it aloud to us, or if I first read it on my own.  What I DO know is that this is a fabulous summer read, and as a family we have read (or listened) to it at least three times over the past few years.  The audio version read by Colleen Delany is beautifully done and we would all highly recommend it!

Synopsis:  Portia Blake and her little brother Foster go to visit their uncle, aunt, and cousin Julian, as they do every summer.  Only this summer, Julian's family has moved to a new house in the country, and there are lots more places to explore.  One day while exploring in the nearby woods, Portia and Julian stumble upon an old colony of abandoned, dilapidated houses at the edge of a swamp.  Only they aren't ALL abandoned...an elderly brother and sister returned years ago to live out their lives in the place they had loved as children, away from the hustle and bustle of modern life.  Gone-Away Lake is the story of the friendship that blossoms between Portia and Julian and "Uncle Pin" and "Aunt Minnehaha."  There is also adventure, a little danger, and lots of fun reminiscing and old stories shared from a childhood at Tarrigo Lake (which later became the swamp, now called Gone-Away Lake).

It's hard to sum up this book in a quick synopsis...it probably doesn't sound all that interesting.  But Elizabeth Enright was a master at writing books about everyday life, taking a simple idea and making it come alive.  This book makes the reader feel like you are right there at Gone-Away with Portia and Julian, like discovering an old summer colony is something that might really happen to you.  It plops you right into the middle of a hot, buggy summer somewhere in New York state.  It also highlights the beautiful friendship that sometimes springs up between children and elderly people, and how much we can learn from each other.  I can't recommend this book highly enough...give it a try.  You and your kids will love it!  It is the perfect summer read.  Even though it is more than sixty years old, it has a timeless quality and is just as enjoyable in 2019 as it would have been in the 1950s.

And...if you read Gone-Away Lake, you must also put Return to Gone-Away on your list!  It is equally enchanting and wonderful.  You can often find copies of both books at thrift stores or used bookstores, but they are also available on Amazon or Thriftbooks pretty inexpensively.  Happy reading!

1 comment:

Mrs.T said...

What a wonderful post!!! I couldn't agree more. This is one of the best kids' books I have ever read. I do remember reading it aloud, but I can't remember which of us first discovered this book at the public library or who read it first.

I hope that some of your readers will find a copy of Gone-Away Lake and give it a read. I think they will be very happy that they did!