Product Description

Summer has a magic all its own in Elizabeth Enright's beloved stories about two children and their discovery of a ghostly lakeside resort. These two modern classics are once again available in Odyssey/Harcourt Young Classic editions, but now with handsome new cover art by Mary GrandPré to complement Beth and Joe Krush's original interior illustrations.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #39613 in Books
• Published on: 2000-03-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 272 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780152022723
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From School Library Journal
Grade 3-6-Elizabeth Enright's 1957 Newbery Honor book (Harcourt, pap. 1990) will continue to entertain and enlighten today's children in this audiobook format just as the print version has for generations. A brief opening train ride (one of the only somewhat dated segments in the book) introduces listeners to Portia and Foster, siblings on their way to spend a summer in the country with their cousin Julian and his parents. But from that point on, the magic of discovering a small summer community, derelict for decades as its lake slowly dried, is just as enchanting today as it was nearly 50 years ago. Even Foster's play at robots and space stations contributes a contemporary feel to the story's details. The story is beautifully written with fairly sophisticated language, and it is even more of a treat to listen to thanks to a charming narration by Colleen Delany. Her lightning-fast transitions from voice to voice are absolutely on target, and she voices each character distinctly. The unfolding tale of the once-upon-a-time summer colony at the turn of the 20th century is wonderful, and Delany's clear, artful reading adds value. This story of a summer of discovery and adventure would be an outstanding choice for elementary school youngsters with a good reading and vocabulary skills.
Jane P. Fenn, Corning-Painted Post West High School, NY
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
"Vicarious adventures of the best sort...these are welcome reissues of Enright's lively stories." -- The Horn Book, July/August 2000

Review

Customer Reviews

A gem from the 1950s
"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.

I loved this story and its sequel...
These books made me wish I'd had this perfect summer adventure. Two children come across a group of old houses, mysteriously vacant and abandoned on the shore of a swampy lake. Somebody has been there -- there's a warning and an inscription carved into a rock. Can the children keep their find a secret? Who left the houses and where did they go? What's lurking in the lake?

A terrific story -- the main characters are a boy and girl who are good friends, interesting people, and respectful of each other's strengths and weaknesses.

It was one of my husband's favorite books and it has become one of mine after we read it aloud to our daughter. The sequel is just as good (Return to Gone-Away). If you enjoyed Enright's books about the Melendy children ("The Saturdays" "Four-Story Mistake", etc.) you'll love these.

Desirous Of Solitude In Tolerable Quarters
A product of late fifties America, Elizabeth Enright's Gone Away Lake (1957) feels, in tone and spirit, more like a reflection of mid-forties America or earlier. Gone Away Lake, a light children's novel, is an excellent showcase for mid - century American manners and mores, the same manners which cynics today like to denigrate or deny ever existed outside of wishful thinking.

The story of two cousins who befriend an isolated pair of elderly siblings living happily at a now abandoned but once magnificent lake resort, Gone Away Lake also demonstrates how those children and teenagers of the era lucky enough to escape the spell - binding pull of television entertained themselves. Nature was generally closer and more available to the average child then than it is today, and the novel is composed around the myriad ways in which Portia and her freckled, insect - collecting cousin Julian embrace the majesty and mystery of nature. Luckily, their new friends, Mrs. Minnehaha Cheever and Mr. Pindar Payton, are nature's Edward Carpenter - like custodians: each is a planter, a gardener, and a conservationist, and Mrs. Cheever is an avid canner and pickler. Mutually delighted in one another's company, the two generations meet, mingle, and become beloved friends and companions over the course of a magically described summer.

Gone Away Lake also touches on aging, memory, personal history, and the importance of mentoring, as Mrs. Cheever and Mr. Payton delight the cousins with subtly ethical reminiscences and tall tales about the lake's glory days when they were children themselves. Without the slightest hint of calculation, artificiality, or political engineering, Enright also emphasizes healthy balance and tolerance, as both the siblings and the cousins are of opposite genders. In an era when both the sexes and gender roles were sharply divided, Gone Away Lake portrays Julian and Portia not only as best friends, but as never less than equals in insight, courage, stamina, intelligence, and ingenuity. In the same subtle fashion, Enright underscores the importance of family and human interaction in the life of the individual. Spanning the generations, Enright implies, is as easy as extending one's self with honesty, integrity, and faith.

Unlike many of today's books written for children, Gone Away Lake is a genuinely warm, spirited, and wholesome book. Framed by ultimately superfluous plot elements such as a mysteriously - carved stone, a pit of quicksand, and a haunted house, Gone Away Lake, a Newberry honorary, will delight readers of all ages.