Gone-Away Lake is a 1957 children's book

Children's literature

Children's literature is for readers and listeners up to about age twelve; it is often defined in four different ways: books written by children, books written for children, books chosen by children, or books chosen for children. It is often illustrated. The term is used in senses which sometimes...

 by Elizabeth Enright

Elizabeth Enright

Elizabeth Enright was an American children's author and illustrator. She was born in Oak Park, Illinois.-Life:Her father, Walter J...

, set in that time period. In Return to Gone-Away

Return to Gone-Away

Return To Gone-Away is a children's book written by Elizabeth Enright, which is the sequel to the book Gone-Away Lake and discusses how the Blake family buys a house in Gone-Away...

, a sequel published in 1961, the Blake family buys a house in Gone-Away.

Plot

Gone-Away Lake starts on a train, traveling through the countryside of western New York state. Portia Blake and her brother Foster are coming to see their favorite cousin, Julian Jarman. Once there, Portia and Julian are walking in the forest when they discover an old Victorian

Victorian architecture

The term Victorian architecture refers collectively to several architectural styles employed predominantly during the middle and late 19th century. The period that it indicates may slightly overlap the actual reign, 20 June 1837 – 22 January 1901, of Queen Victoria. This represents the British and...

 resort community next to a bog. Elderly siblings Mr. Payton and Mrs. Cheever, the town's only inhabitants, soon become friends with the children, who set up a club in an abandoned house. Stories of the days when the bog was a lake called Tarrigo are interspersed with the modern-day adventures of Portia, and Julian, who at first keep the entire place and their new friends a secret. Foster soon discovers their secret and the rest of the members of the Jarman and Blake families also become acquainted with the charms of Gone-Away and its inhabitants.

Awards, praise and nominations

Gone-Away Lake received the New York Herald Tribune

New York Herald Tribune

The New York Herald Tribune was a daily newspaper created in 1924 when the New York Tribune acquired the New York Herald.Other predecessors, which had earlier merged into the New York Tribune, included the original The New Yorker newsweekly , and the Whig Party's Log Cabin.The paper was home to...

s Children's Spring Book Festival Award in 1957, in addition to the 1958 Newbery Honor. In 1963 the American Library Association

American Library Association

The American Library Association is a non-profit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with more than 62,000 members....

 named Gone-Away Lake as the U.S. nominee for the international Hans Christian Andersen Award

Hans Christian Andersen Award

The Hans Christian Andersen Award, sometimes known as the "Nobel Prize for children's literature", is an international award given biennially by the International Board on Books for Young People in recognition of a "lasting contribution to children's literature"...

. Also awarded to the book was the Lalachicachan Award in 1972.

The New York Times

The New York Times

The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

praised the book's "... brilliance and ... humor that make it seem as if it were happening right this minute."