The Humpherys Family

Gone-Away Lake

Record Added: 8/4/2011
Author 
Illustrator 
Series Gone-Away Lake Books
Setting United States
Topic Family
Publisher Harcourt, Brace, and Comp
ISBN 0152022740   Year 2000
Age 9-12   Pages 272
Description Printed dustjacket
 
"Gone-Away Lake" is a delightful, beautifully written story, 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.