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Gone-Away Lake (Gone-Away Lake #1)

4.12 of 5 stars 4.12 · rating details · 2,787 ratings · 211 reviews

Portia and her cousin Julian discover summer adventure in a hidden colony of forgotten summer houses on the shores of a swampy lake.

Paperback, 256 pages

Published August 1st 1990 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt P (first published 1957)

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Mar 24, 2008 Qt rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: drama

Charming, sweet, and the perfect summer book; it's very pleasurable reading and just a lovely, wonderful tale of a delicious summer.

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Dec 30, 2009 Melody rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

First re-read of this in probably a decade. I remembered loving it, and I remembered lots besides, but I did not remember it being howlingly funny. Which it is.

Coming to this straight from a re-read of Maud Hart Lovelace's Betsy-Tacy books, I find myself unsurprised that I grew up with a deep and abiding love for the written word. As a kid, I was reading some fine, fine writers all unaware. A pause, then, for a moment of gratitude to Mrs. Borski the iron-grey librarian who steered my little cano...more

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Jun 18, 2007 Missy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ya

It probably says volumes about my childhood that this book, with the secret Victorian ghost town on a bogged-up lake, is one of my most treasured memories. A secret clubhouse in a falling-down mansion? License to forage among the other houses? Trunk after trunk of treasures, everything from clothes to seashells to a moosehead? Oh, yeah, I was so right there with Portia and her family.

I'm so happy they've re-issued this, and kept all the original illustrations.

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Dec 14, 2012 Ceecee rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: children, perfect for summer reading

Shelves: children-s, a-welcome-diversion, 5-star, books-i-own

This is one of those books which I thoroughly appreciate as an adult that I wouldn't appreciate as a child, and yet I heartily recommend it to children.

It's a sort of Benjamin Button phenomena. As a child, I liked to read Charles Dickens because Matilda loved Dickens. And so I devoured classic after classic, and generally stayed away from typical "children's books" because I was a child. Go figure. In fairness, I did like the Bobbsey Twins and Goosebumps, but that's just about it. I especially s...more

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Jan 10, 2009 Blackmarigold80 rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

This is my all-time favorite book. What began as a summer read after fourth grade has turned into a career, a passion and a huge part of myself. This book not only made me fall in love with Victorian houses, but also with childrens' books, art, historic preservation and any old decrepit house I happened to see! Eilizabeth Enright is one of those long-lost jewels in the library that everyone has forgotten. Her books are wonderful.

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Jan 16, 2009 Carolyn rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I loved this book as a child and read it to my children a few years ago, and they liked it, too. It is about two cousins, Portia and Julian, who find an old Victorian summer village with abandoned houses and two wonderful residents. This is a gentle book, yet with enough happening to keep things interesting.

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Jan 29, 2009 Lexy added it · review of another edition

Gone away lake is one of my all time favorite. It was great.

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May 16, 2013 Nick rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: juvenile-fiction

As a child, I carefully avoided books like the original cover for this one, which was a rather clunky blue and yellow thing of no great beauty.
The story itself was a peaceful tale of discovery and exploration, and yet there are elements which might horrify modern parents.
Two children, while exploring the surroundings of their summer home, find a nearly-abandoned summer village. Its two remaining occupants are quaint and very odd, and a sweet story ensues. Creating a clubhouse out of abandoned bu...more

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Sep 16, 2012 Wayne S. rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Ten-year-old Portia Blake and her six-year-old brother Foster are riding a train all by themselves on their way to spend their summer vacation with their Uncle Jake, Aunt Hilda, and cousin Julian Jarman. The Blake parents normally go with them, but Mother and Father will be in Europe until August. The Jarmans have recently purchased a house in the country, so Julian and Portia spend their days exploring, while Foster finds a similarly-aged friend in the Jarman’s neighbor Davey Gayson to play wit...more Ten-year-old Portia Blake and her six-year-old brother Foster are riding a train all by themselves on their way to spend their summer vacation with their Uncle Jake, Aunt Hilda, and cousin Julian Jarman. The Blake parents normally go with them, but Mother and Father will be in Europe until August. The Jarmans have recently purchased a house in the country, so Julian and Portia spend their days exploring, while Foster finds a similarly-aged friend in the Jarman’s neighbor Davey Gayson to play with. One day the older kids discover an abandoned Victorian resort community next to a bog. It’s like a ghost town. They learn that it used to be called Tarrigo Lake, but after the lake dried up, the homes were abandoned and it became known as Gone-Away Lake. They might even be able to use one for a clubhouse, so they decide to keep it a secret just between the two of them, at least for a while.

However, as the two explore, they hear a loud, booming voice coming out from one of the houses. It turns out to be a radio, and they learn that the old village has not been completely abandoned. Elderly siblings Mr. Pindar Payton and Mrs. Lionel Alexis (Minnehaha) Cheever have returned and still live there. But who are they? And can they be trusted? I really liked this book. I found it interesting that on one website, out of 76 reader reviews, 61, the vast majority, gave the book five stars, whereas five gave it one star. Those who did not like the book had two complaints. The first was that it has no plot and is too boring. I guess that this doesn’t surprise me coming from children, and adults with the attention span of children, who have been raised on half-hour television sitcoms, video games, and the inanity of Harry Potter. The second complaint was that it is “way too happy,” that it is just “nice people enjoying each other's company and having fun,” that it doesn’t have enough problems and conflict. My, my! I guess there must be more of a market for morbid, depressing children’s literature than I would have thought. I’ll take “happy” any day, thank you. The only thing that I don’t like about the Scholastic edition that I bought used is the very modern (i.e., 1980-ish) cover illustration.

The book won a 1958 Newbery Honor award for author Elizabeth Enright, who already had a Newbery Medal for her 1938 Thimble Summer. Gone-Away Lake is a charming story. I especially appreciate the way that family is portrayed. “Aunt Hilda was Portia’s third favorite woman in the world. First came her mother, naturally, and after that came Miss Hempel, her English teacher” (p. 22). The only downside is that there is a lot of common euphemisms (gosh, heck, gee, golly, doggone it, confounded, darn, and darnation), and some instances of pipe smoking occur. Most people will not have much of a problem with either of these things, but some parents would probably like to know them ahead of time. In addition to a pleasant plot with its gentle humor, the stories told by Mrs. Cheever and Mr. Payton about the days when the bog was a lake, which are interspersed with the modern-day adventures of Portia and Julian, illustrate how important the past is, even to children. One reviewer called it an “Odd story” that “may seem dated but it has an almost out-of-time quality that makes it accessible to modern readers.” There is a sequel, Return to Gone-Away, published in 1961, in which the Blake family buys and restores a house at Gone-Away.
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Jul 12, 2012 Milly rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Note: The following was written as a book talk for a grade 3-6 audience. I hope the description will still be relevant to adult readers.

Does this plot sound familiar? A group of children travel to the countryside on a train. They stay in a grand old house where they find a magic wardrobe that transports them to a new world. This probably rings a bell. Well, Gone Away Lake shares many of the elements of that story, except that the magic these characters encounter is part of their own world, and e...more Note: The following was written as a book talk for a grade 3-6 audience. I hope the description will still be relevant to adult readers.

Does this plot sound familiar? A group of children travel to the countryside on a train. They stay in a grand old house where they find a magic wardrobe that transports them to a new world. This probably rings a bell. Well, Gone Away Lake shares many of the elements of that story, except that the magic these characters encounter is part of their own world, and entirely real.
This book begins, as you might have guessed, with a train ride. Portia and her younger brother Foster are on their way to stay with their aunt, uncle, and cousin in the country. While exploring outside, Portia and Julian, the cousin, come upon a ghost town. Where there had once been a beautiful lake, a village of summer cottages grew. (Except that in this book when they say cottages, they mean gigantic Victorian mansions.) But when the lake dried into a swamp, all the residents moved away, leaving their grand homes to be overtaken by blackberry bushes and vines. Except that not all the residents left. The story really gets interesting when Portia and Julian meet two elderly residents of the ghost town, still living there alone. Through their friendship with this elderly pair, Julian and Portia are able to explore both the old houses themselves and their strange history.
This book might sounds slow (No magic wardrobe? No talking lions?) but the characters and setting really grab you. My favorite scene takes place when Portia and Julian take over the attic of one of the abandoned houses and make it their clubhouse. They clean it up, decorate it with the treasures they find around the houses, and make it their own secret place. This reminded me of how desperately I wanted a secret place like this when I was young. Who hasn’t wanted a spot like that? Well, by reading this book, you get to visit it along with the main characters.
To find out what happens to the characters, and to the ghost town of Gone Away Lake, you need to read not only this book, but also its sequel, Return to Gone Away. This book is a great reminder that you don’t have to board a train to Narnia or Hogwarts to have an adventure. There are plenty of adventures to be had closer to home.
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Jun 26, 2011 Kimberly marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Shelves: vintage-kids-books, pre-teen-early-teen

As I've mentioned previously, for the past couple of years, I've enjoyed following a blog featuring vintage kids' picture book reviews. Sadly, we won't be in the picture book phase for too many more years. I recently found online a gold-mine of kids' chapter books recommendations, vintage and otherwise, though it will require a mind-boggling amount of work to get the information in a useful format. In 2009, a New York Times columnist published a short list of his picks for the best kids' books,...more

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Oct 11, 2010 Dayle rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I read this when I was eleven and loved it! Most of what I remembered was the illustrations by Beth and Joe Krush. Many, many years went by and I found this again when taking my sons to the library! Oh, happy day! I wrote down the author and title in a little notebook and put it in "a safe place." I was heartbroken that the library fell victim to a devastating hurricane and, of course, so did my house. The paper surfaced again when we rebuilt and our things in storage were being unpacked. I, of...more

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Dec 20, 2011 Deena rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: bosler, vintage-ya

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I have 2 complaints: the first is that I left this to read for so long, despite having known about it for several years, courtesy of my friend Keri. The other is that I didn't read it as a child.

This was absolutely delightful; I requested the sequel from the library before I was a quarter of the way through. There wasn't much conflict, but Ms. Enright's style allows one to see, smell, hear, and feel all that the children do, without merely telling about things.

It is, in many respects, much like...more

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Oct 04, 2009 Josiah rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

"Do you suppose the mind ever lets go of a single thing?"

—Mrs. Cheever, "Gone-away Lake", P. 107

I would definitely give this book two and a half stars.
Gone-away Lake is an exceedingly straightforward story, with simple themes that don't stray too far from what most readers tend to love about the books of Elizabeth Enright, yet it also succeeds in ways that are surprisingly profound.
Perhaps more than any other writer of her day, Elizabeth Enright has a defined knack for telling long, intrica...more

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Jul 20, 2012 Stephanie A. rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

This book is for everyone who has ever wanted to go exploring in an abandoned house. Or an entire community of them. And maybe all those houses will be full of old (Victorian-era!) furniture and other items (like an old doll left in a closet), with attics you can use as clubhouses. Better yet, one house might not be abandoned, but instead have a kindly old woman more than happy to tour the houses with you and reminisce on what life in the little resort neighborhood was like when she was a girl a...more

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Nov 15, 2012 Bonnie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: books-i-own

Good children's books are a delight to visit or revisit. I'm always particularly drawn to books about children's adventures over summer vacations. Maybe that's why the summer books in the Trixie Belden series are among my favorites. In Gone-Away Lake, Portia and her younger brother Foster go to spend the summer with their aunt and uncle. Portia and her cousin Julian go exploring and come across a mostly abandoned cluster of run-down, once elegant, summer homes. Elderly Mrs. Cheever and her broth...more

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Nov 17, 2012 Robert Day rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

When I was before a teenager and part of the school book club I bought this book and was mesmerised and haunted from this early age by the thought of people living in a big old house in the middle of a swamp, cut off from civilisation and progress and the wonders and ills of modern life and I thought 'yes, what a great idea; what a way great way to live!'. Now, I look at this book and I know why I kept it all these years. I admire those kids that went into the swamp and found the living past and...more

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Dec 07, 2008 Sharri rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: juvenile, fiction

As usual, I'm reading Newbery Award winners. I read a series of older ones over Thanksgiving break, including this. It's a cute one about kids who discover an almost-ghost town. They befriend the remaining inhabitants and start a club in an abandoned summer home. It's old-fashioned and simple without any of the teen angst of modern juvenile fiction.

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Jun 04, 2012 Anna rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012, children, fiction, newbery-honor, realistic-fiction

A gentle summertime adventure story for young readers. Not much in the way of action like you see in many of the popular children's stories today, this is a summer adventure at a slower pace and is the sort of story you can get lost in. Two young cousins go exploring in the woods near their summertime community and find a nearly forgotten neighborhood from a bygone era. The area lake has dried up leaving lots of mud, marshes, and mosquitoes, and causing nearly all the inhabitants to move away. T...more

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Oct 05, 2009 Melissa rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: kidlit-history

This is a classic case of a continuing issue I have with my BT listmates:
They mention a book. Over and over again. I finally get around to reading it. I adore said book, and then I kick myself for not picking it up years ago.

This is one of those children's books I wish I had discovered when I was still a kid. Little me would have been in absoolute heaven. I know this because big me was pretty much in heaven. Quirky grownups! Abandoned Victorian treasures! Attics full of antiques and trunks full...more

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Jan 04, 2009 Shannon rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

One of my favorite childhood books!

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May 14, 2013 Kathryn Bundy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: children-s-literature

It was such fun to revisit this childhood favorite of mine. It was probably one of the more influential books I read as a kid --- in some ways it has contributed to both my career interests and my own writing. I wanted to find a place like Gone-Away Lake, full of history, haunted by the former residents, but still represented by the living remnants. I especially wanted to find a house like the mansion that was boarded up and still intact. Wait, no. I STILL want to do that!

I eventually started do...more

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Oct 29, 2011 Susan Eyre rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: childrens-lit

NONREADERS BEWARE:
I just had to review this book, the book that started it all.
When I was a girl, reading had no draw for me. I read purely when forced, and little even then. But my mom found this book. Gone-Away Lake is the first book I enjoyed reading. I read it quickly, and after even RE-read it (wonders never cease). Thus started a life of vivacious reading.

This book is a charming tale of friendship and adventure. Two cousins embark on a journey through seemingly boring woods and find mys...more

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Dec 17, 2008 Melanie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: children-s-must-reads, kids-fiction

A very enjoyable kids book. Suspenseful and kept me reading to find out what happened. I just loved it. The sequel was equally enjoyable.

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May 26, 2011 Emily rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Imaginative children

Shelves: childrens, fiction, re-read

Although I was disappointed by this one as a child and never finished it, (much preferred Enright's Melendy family stories), I decided to revisit it. I can see why my eleven-year-old self didn't like it as much. Even as an adult, it dragged in places, probably because the main characters Julian and Portia just don't seem to be quite as well-drawn as the Melendy kids. However, if I'd stuck with it till the end, I'm sure I would have been delighted with this book. The two cousins' discovery is jus...more

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Sep 03, 2009 Carolynne rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: oldfavorites

Portia and her cousin Julian discover a hidden abandoned village dating from the turn of the century--the 20th century! They are flabbergasted to discover that two of the houses are still occupied by a brother and sister who were among the original occupants of Tarrigo. They make a clubhouse in another abandoned home, and soon other friends and relatives get in on the secret. This book is full of fascinating details about the old houses and their furnishings, and of the children's interest in th...more

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Oct 22, 2009 Kasha rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: boy-books, girl-books

Despite this being a newberry honor book, I only kind of enjoyed it. It's an awfully thick book but is only an AR level of 5.3. I don't think I'll recommend it to David or Faye because it just didn't capture me like so many other books out there can. It moved kind of slow for me, and nothing interesting enough happened in the story. It was very clean except for one black and white picture toward the end. They were exploring an abandoned house (there are several such explorations) and there is qu...more

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Aug 18, 2011 Rosanne rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: children-s-books

I learned about this book on a quilting blog that I follow. It is a wonderful story about some children who find a swamp that used to be a lake. The houses are empty except for two people who tell them the story of the lake. Although the comparison is not exact, it reminded me of building huts across the street from my home and in my grandma's pasture. There was also a home that was boarded up where I grew up and as children we wondered what was inside when we were children. It was a stretch, bu...more

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Apr 02, 2009 Shannon rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: logan-later

This is a lovely story. I'm particularly drawn to stories in which older people and kids are friends, which is something you almost never see in TV or movies (where the old are generally mocked). And it's nice to read a story in which the family is quite average and normal. The children are fairly realistic and I really enjoyed reading of their adventures. Sadly, children aren't really allowed to have these kind of free and potentially dangerous adventures any more. Another author who writes sto...more

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May 14, 2013 Catherine rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: children-s

This gentle, timeless, innocent book was a very enjoyable summer read. It taps into the common childhood fantasy that maybe someday, somewhere, you might stumble upon a secret world that no one else knows about. I love the freedom these children enjoy as they spend their summer exploring in a swamp, the healthy portrayal of children with interests other than television and video games, and the safe relationship they form with two quirky, older adults. My 11-year-old son read this book right afte...more

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About Elizabeth Enright

Elizabeth Enright (1907-1968) was born in Oak Park, Illinois, but spent most of her life in or near New York City. Her mother was a magazine illustrator, while her father was a political cartoonist. Illustration was Enright's original career choice and she studied art in Greenwich, Connecticut; Paris, France; and New York City. After creating her first book in 1935, she developed a taste, and quic...more

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Books by Elizabeth Enright

Then There Were Five (The Melendy Family, #3)

The Four-Story Mistake (The Melendy Family, #2)

Return to Gone-Away (Gone-Away Lake, #2)

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Quotes from Gone-Away Lake

“Now isn't that nice!' said the old lady. 'If cousins are the right kind, they're best of all: kinder than sisters and brothers, and closer than friends.” — 13 people liked it

“Maybe we benefit from the providence of others more often than we know.” — 5 people liked it

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