Eleven-year-old Portia is taking the train with her younger brother Foster to their Aunt & Uncle's farm for their usual summer vacation. Her cousin Julian shares her interest in exploring outdoors, and knows quite a lot of natural history. They come across a swamp, and meet some elderly siblings living an old-fashioned existence, without electricity or running water, in their former family lake homes. They are fascinating characters, and sometimes an entire chapter consists of one of the elders telling a story about their childhood. Mrs. Cheever shares her knowledge of swamp plants, "Pin" Peyton lets them help with the goats and chickens, and they let the 2 youngsters make a clubhouse out of another lake home. Portia and Julian keep their activities a secret, but Foster follows them one day and gets stuck in the swamp.
Portia starts out as a strong character, but by the end of the book she is devoting her time to play housekeeping and an interest in dolls, having fallen into stereotyped roles once another neighbor girl joins them. In general, though, I think this book presents a summer vacation that most kids would be envious of, and would enjoy reading about. ( )

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

From the description on the back of the book I thought this was going to be a mystery, or a thriller/adventure book. It was not, but it was a very sweet tale of 1950s children discovering a 1900s vacation village. In the end my disappointment at the lack of adventure was overcome by the charm of the characters and their wonder at discovering a living time capsule. ( )

It was exciting, adventury and nature like. And a few creepy parts. ( )

I love the way the author describes the feeling of the beginning of summer. This is a sweet, old-fashioned story of discovery. ( )