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Secret Raft
Sixth-grader Howie Blake has lots of adventures around Deerlick River and Deadwood Lake, including investigating mysterious men living in the swamp.
A group of children decided to build a raft after hearing that there were some crooks around that were going to blow up the hydroelectric plant.
Howie Blake, his dog and his sister are fond of rafting around a swamp near their home. Child fashion, they surmise the presence of spies when they find some strangers camping out in the swamp. These are actually scientists trying to determine whether or not the primeval ooze has healing properties and their project becomes the children's project.
A group of children decided to build a raft after hearing that there were some crooks around that were going to blow up the hydroelectric plant.
Howie Blake, his dog and his sister are fond of rafting around a swamp near their home. Child fashion, they surmise the presence of spies when they find some strangers camping out in the swamp. These are actually scientists trying to determine whether or not the primeval ooze has healing properties and their project becomes the children's project.
Hardcover
First published January 1, 1965
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
August 15, 2015
I bought this book at a used bookstore in Connecticut. It wasn't because I was familiar with the author's name, but because I was very familiar with the illustrator, Charles Geer.
Only after I purchased it did I realize that this was the author of one of my favorite books when I was a kid, "100 Pounds of Popcorn". That book was in our family library and I read and re-read it many times.
The Secret Raft is exactly the type of book I loved to read when I was a kid, and I enjoyed the story of Howie Blake at the awkward stage of being a teen-ager maturing and understanding responsibility.
Only after I purchased it did I realize that this was the author of one of my favorite books when I was a kid, "100 Pounds of Popcorn". That book was in our family library and I read and re-read it many times.
The Secret Raft is exactly the type of book I loved to read when I was a kid, and I enjoyed the story of Howie Blake at the awkward stage of being a teen-ager maturing and understanding responsibility.
May 23, 2014
Read this with my 9 year old; I chose this book because I loved any book with Charles Geer illustrations growing up and when I saw the cover in the thrift store, I bought it immediately. This is an old fashioned story about an underachieving boy who learns that he can do anything if he sets his mind to it. With an under-achieving son this hit my son right between the eyes. A good read.
November 12, 2024
Howie Blake of Thorneywoods, USA is a good kid who can't seem to stay out of trouble in school. It doesn't help that his parents find it easier to connect with his scholarly sports-champ older brother and bratty-cute little sister than with him. To make matters worse, Howie always knows when he's made a mistake... the minute it's too late to prevent it from happening. Could an unexpected friendship with a team of scientists investigating a local swamp be the key to solving all his problems?
This book had a great overall theme of having to work at things to get better at them -- including attitude changes. Howie was believable as a kid wanting to grow more mature but constantly bungling it, and I appreciated the scene in which Dr. Stevens compares growing up to the trial and error and slow progress of scientific experimentation. I wish there were more books where kids are encouraged to observe themselves and others and to work by patient incremental changes, rather than characters who are either precociously adept at meeting behavioral expectations or pressured by plot points to conveniently mature overnight.
I also appreciated Howie as a boy who struggles to focus in school simply because he can't connect the importance of academics with his interests in the wider world. His determination to succeed comes in two phases: first, when a bad grade threatens to ground him and he achieves a better one in order to reclaim his free time; second, when he learns to admire Dr. Stevens and suddenly connects all the things he's learning in social studies and geography with real places and real people whom he (Howie) might someday be able to help. Does it happen a little too fast? Sure, maybe. But I still liked it. It's too easy these days to pathologize the simple lack of motivation.
Less appealing was the treatment of female characters -- Howie's friend Diane initially gets to help the scientists with lab equipment like her brother and Howie do, but loses interest and develops an uncharacteristic passion for washing muddy socks, making up camp beds, and scolding the menfolk instead. Later on, Howie's dad and teenage brother decide between them, with a glance, to withhold critical local news updates from Howie's mom so that she won't get "upset." Then again, this is set in a time where a bunch of men hiding out in a swamp can claim to be famous scientists and explain this in a letter to parents who then allow their children to visit these men without further question -- and it's all perfectly benevolent and above-board and nothing untoward comes of it.
Now, I could have overlooked the plethora of dated scenarios and shallow mid-century stereotypes if there had been even the slightest nod given to the biodiversity and importance of wetland habitats. Atmospheric books with place-as-character are one of my favorite things to read, and the swamp could easily have been the most fascinating character in this story.
Instead, it's given from the outset that the swamp is going to be drained. The heart of the action surrounds whether a research facility will be built there (good!) or a factory (bad!). One would hope that the construction of a biopharmaceutical lab, on the premise that the mud holds valuable bacteria, might indicate some level of conservation for the site, and not just a complete exploitation. The swamp itself is portrayed as completely dead, devoid of life, and like something "out of a scary movie." Even birds won't live there -- and "birds don't nest in dead trees!" becomes a critical plot point.
This doesn't work for a book attempting to portray cutting-edge advances in science. "The swamp is important, but we also need to cut down the trees and drain it" is a central theme in Gene Stratton-Porter's A Girl of the Limberlost written half a century earlier, but she at least pauses to dwell on its potential for mystery, romance, rare beauty, and biological superabundance. Even Elizabeth Enright's contemporary Gone-Away Lake (1957) shows a wetland as a haven for wildlife, a naturalist's dream, and a fun place to explore if one is very careful.
It is unintentionally amusing that the climactic action involves I realize that wetland protection measures did not receive national attention until the 1970s, but I had hoped that a book featuring science and scientists might be a little more prescient than average.
Overall, it was a good-hearted book with a few moments that made me grin (like a neighbor worrying about floodwaters potentially ruining the "hi-fi set in his basement", or the cheeky portrayal of research assistants as gangly young men fresh out of their teens who walk around half-dressed and whose idea of what to bring on a research expedition is an entire cooler full of steaks). I would not recommend making the effort to find a copy unless you're interested in the depiction of STEM in mid-century children's fiction or have a particular fondness for Charles Geer's illustrations.
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This book had a great overall theme of having to work at things to get better at them -- including attitude changes. Howie was believable as a kid wanting to grow more mature but constantly bungling it, and I appreciated the scene in which Dr. Stevens compares growing up to the trial and error and slow progress of scientific experimentation. I wish there were more books where kids are encouraged to observe themselves and others and to work by patient incremental changes, rather than characters who are either precociously adept at meeting behavioral expectations or pressured by plot points to conveniently mature overnight.
I also appreciated Howie as a boy who struggles to focus in school simply because he can't connect the importance of academics with his interests in the wider world. His determination to succeed comes in two phases: first, when a bad grade threatens to ground him and he achieves a better one in order to reclaim his free time; second, when he learns to admire Dr. Stevens and suddenly connects all the things he's learning in social studies and geography with real places and real people whom he (Howie) might someday be able to help. Does it happen a little too fast? Sure, maybe. But I still liked it. It's too easy these days to pathologize the simple lack of motivation.
Less appealing was the treatment of female characters -- Howie's friend Diane initially gets to help the scientists with lab equipment like her brother and Howie do, but loses interest and develops an uncharacteristic passion for washing muddy socks, making up camp beds, and scolding the menfolk instead. Later on, Howie's dad and teenage brother decide between them, with a glance, to withhold critical local news updates from Howie's mom so that she won't get "upset." Then again, this is set in a time where a bunch of men hiding out in a swamp can claim to be famous scientists and explain this in a letter to parents who then allow their children to visit these men without further question -- and it's all perfectly benevolent and above-board and nothing untoward comes of it.
Now, I could have overlooked the plethora of dated scenarios and shallow mid-century stereotypes if there had been even the slightest nod given to the biodiversity and importance of wetland habitats. Atmospheric books with place-as-character are one of my favorite things to read, and the swamp could easily have been the most fascinating character in this story.
Instead, it's given from the outset that the swamp is going to be drained. The heart of the action surrounds whether a research facility will be built there (good!) or a factory (bad!). One would hope that the construction of a biopharmaceutical lab, on the premise that the mud holds valuable bacteria, might indicate some level of conservation for the site, and not just a complete exploitation. The swamp itself is portrayed as completely dead, devoid of life, and like something "out of a scary movie." Even birds won't live there -- and "birds don't nest in dead trees!" becomes a critical plot point.
This doesn't work for a book attempting to portray cutting-edge advances in science. "The swamp is important, but we also need to cut down the trees and drain it" is a central theme in Gene Stratton-Porter's A Girl of the Limberlost written half a century earlier, but she at least pauses to dwell on its potential for mystery, romance, rare beauty, and biological superabundance. Even Elizabeth Enright's contemporary Gone-Away Lake (1957) shows a wetland as a haven for wildlife, a naturalist's dream, and a fun place to explore if one is very careful.
It is unintentionally amusing that the climactic action involves I realize that wetland protection measures did not receive national attention until the 1970s, but I had hoped that a book featuring science and scientists might be a little more prescient than average.
Overall, it was a good-hearted book with a few moments that made me grin (like a neighbor worrying about floodwaters potentially ruining the "hi-fi set in his basement", or the cheeky portrayal of research assistants as gangly young men fresh out of their teens who walk around half-dressed and whose idea of what to bring on a research expedition is an entire cooler full of steaks). I would not recommend making the effort to find a copy unless you're interested in the depiction of STEM in mid-century children's fiction or have a particular fondness for Charles Geer's illustrations.
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March 31, 2024
rounded up, because I was happy that the suspicious strangers weren't spies as the kids first though, but field scientists, because I enjoyed the raft making, and because I liked that the main protagonist boy developed an interest in science as a result of the adventuring. And I'm always on board for a nice natural disaster, in this case a flood.
January 20, 2026
3.67
First half was amazing, kids building a raft, pretending to be hunting spies
Second half, snooze fest with too much science about mold and mud and medicines
First half was amazing, kids building a raft, pretending to be hunting spies
Second half, snooze fest with too much science about mold and mud and medicines
December 27, 2023
The first book I remember reading as a child in elementary school! Maybe read in 4th or 5th grade during the mid 60's. My mom had found it through some Book Club. To this day as an educator in my 60’s I can see all the details on the cover of the book and the main illustration in the book. I have a very fond memory for both the story and the sense of accomplishment as one of my first books to read.
June 22, 2023
I read this book twice. Once at age 10 and once at age 65. It was thoroughly enjoyable both times.
August 9, 2025
Delightful, short read.
September 13, 2009
One of the first books I read as a child. Fond memories of the book.
July 22, 2015
Great story from when I was kid.
July 25, 2016
One of my favorite childhood books. Affirmed my sense of adventure and the importance of friendship and service. Exciting.
January 26, 2016
A. Children's fiction, Weekly Reader Book Club, Mom's stash, keep, adventure.
April 18, 2016
One of my favorite books as a kid. I read, and reread it, and many years later I found a used copy, which I promptly purchased to keep on my shelf. Maybe I'll read it now!
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews